October 21, 2016 • 64 mins
Donald Trump has captured global attention in his campaign for the Presidency – and, like his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, no small amount of controversy. So is there any truth to the massive conspiracy theories surrounding Trump? Tune in to hear more about the facts and fiction of the Trump campaign, from the rumors of tax dodging to false flag candidates and more. (And don’t worry, folks, part II is all about the Clinton campaign.)
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. If you can turn back now
or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello,
(00:24):
and welcome back to the show. I am Matt the
Fixer Frederick and I am Noel Minambre is Noel Brown. Uh.
And they called me Ben I guess and you're listening
to h h of all the people I thought you'd
be like on the fly with it. Yeah, well, bet
Benny two hands, ben N two hands, ben N two
(00:47):
hands uh, or my alter ego of course, Max powers
astronaut with a secret. Most importantly, folks you are here,
give us your nickname suggestions if you have some stuff
for Matt Nolan. I uh. This is of course stuff
they don't want you to know. And today we're beginning
(01:08):
the first of a two part series on on something
that requires a disclaimer. And many of you have written
to us on Facebook, on Twitter and email um strange
messages scrawled in backwards print on mirrors in the dark, uh,
saying that you want you want us and your fellow
listeners to explore the conspiracy theory surrounding Donald Trump and
(01:34):
Hillary Clinton. So I was I think, um, initially pretty
hesitant to do this because people can get people, people
can get so wrapped up in stuff and not look
at it in uh in a more objective way. And
I say that because I have been one of those
people in the past. So luckily nol Matt, you guys
(02:00):
were much more level headed than I am. Um. Uh,
let me put in this disclaimer which I'm gonna read
through quickly and if you can help me out before
I before I do anything crazy. Uh So, First, politics, Yes,
there are a passionate touchy thing. And in the United States,
the unfortunate truth is that most citizens are what are
(02:21):
known as low information voters, meaning like somebody might say,
oh man, my dad was a Democrat. His dad was
a Democrat, by golly, I'm a Democrat no matter what,
or just you know, I like the kind of that
guy's jib and his suit, a guy you could sit
down and have a beer with. Yeah, But ultimately it
(02:43):
feels like a team sport, right, I mean, I'm on
this team. I don't know that. That's what I generally
have seen in my family, Like the dichotomy of like, well,
I'm gonna stick with my team the same way, I
don't want those other guys to win. It's more like
being in a really big cult. Okay, oh man, when
(03:04):
are we gonna start. Let's not offend anybody before we
get through the disclaimer though, so let's soldier off. So
this creates a situation in which often actual policy, what
the people in a power will actually do, takes a
backseat to the spectacle reporting of it, you know, like
(03:25):
the gaffs that people make, or the the things they
wear versus the stuff they think. And regardless of someone's
political affiliation, whether you were inside or outside of the
United States, you've probably noticed, especially in the primaries, that
a lot of the conversation on the Republican Democratic side
(03:45):
was not about policy. It was a lot of like, well,
let me tell you about my family relatives, and I'm
just good old slice of honest America. And we and
then we get into the the first two presidential debates,
the third one which is happening tonight, and again, policy
(04:06):
discussion seems to be non existent, or at least a
little blip on the radar of what gets discussed when
these when the politicians are actually speaking, and we've got
our work cut out for us. Today because both candidates,
as we said, are surrounded by conspiracy theories, and in
this episode, we're starting out with the candidate who has
also propagated some theories himself, and that is Donald Trump.
(04:30):
Of course, we're not here to tell you how to
vote if you're voting. We're also not here to do
some kind of Fox News MSNBC thing with you know,
um pushing an agenda on you. This is a collection
of the publicly available facts, arguments, and claims made by
for and against Mr Donald Trump. And yes, yes, next
(04:52):
week we will be back with the exact same sort
of episode centered on the Hillary Clinton campaign. We push
our agendas exclusively subliminal messages and mind control rays right
as required by our sponsor, Illumination Global Unlimited. Moving on. Uh,
so here we go. Let's start with the facts strap in.
(05:14):
It's gonna be a doozy. So who is Donald Trump?
Can you guys tell me a little bit about him?
While Donald J. Trump was born in nineteen forty six,
the year of our Lord and Queens, New York, the
son of a self made real estate mogul by the
name of Fred Trump. Uh. He got his start in
the family business, which was originally known as Elizabeth Trump
(05:36):
and son Um. For a fun fact, Trump's uncle, Dr
John G. Trump, was an m I T. Professor. This
is the fact that Trump, you know, mentions on the
campaign trail occasionally. You know, he comes from smart stock
Um and the FBI once asked him to examine Nikolai
Tesla's papers when Tesla died, in which we have an
(05:59):
episode on because those papers were confiscated for a time
after Tesla expired in abject poverty. By the way, in
Love with a Bird, That is all true, But you
had to quickly get back to the Donald himself. He
was working with his father's company before he graduated college,
(06:20):
and his first project was a building called the Swifton
Village for closed department complex in Cincinnati, Ohio. Right, Yes,
that building there in Cincinnati, and it was a successful
h It was a successful endeavor. His father, Fred had
purchased it for about five point seven million in nine
(06:42):
dollars uh. They invested an additional five hundred thousand in it,
and they turned it its occupacy rate into a hudd
percent from thirty, so it was successful. He Um was
giving control of that come opening in seventy one, and
he changed the name to the Trump Organization and then
(07:05):
began over the next few decades building the brand. Right,
this guy was building brands before a lot of people
realize that. You know, we live in now Snapchat, social media.
Everybody's a brand, right, But this guy was one of
the originators of this sort of promotion, or at least
(07:27):
one of the most successful. And a lot of what
Trump attributes his wealth to UM the specific number, which
is still not entirely clear, is that brand UM And
how you know? According to Mr Trump and his family,
when that brand is attached to something, it instantly is
(07:47):
more valuable or has the potential to earn more. It
is a midas of the names. Yeah, I like you
said that, a midas of marketing and with many different
business endeavors. I mean, we can just off the top
of our heads name various things have been associated. I
mean I'll go first, hotels, casinos, stakes, university for a time,
(08:12):
a board game, oh yeah, an airline in an airline,
yeah man, vodka vodka as well, wow, casinos of course. Yeah.
So these and that's just a small list. So when
you are that publicly prominent and successful, what's what's next?
(08:35):
You know, if you have a bunch of money if
you've had a sense of business experience. Uh. He decided
to run for office, to run for the highest office
in the land in this country, which is commander in chief,
the US presidency. I remember hearing an early early quote
from him discussing, how you know you can I've been
(08:59):
paying off politicians all my career, and you know now
I'm gonna I'm gonna be in control and you can't
pay me off because I'm already a billionaire. Yeah, that's
one of the arguments. And then also he I don't
know how many people know this. Any Trump supporters in
the audience are probably already aware of this. His current
(09:21):
campaign for presidency is not his first time. In the
year two thousands, he briefly pursued nomination for the Reform Party,
and historically third parties don't have much of a shot
here in this country. So let's talk a little bit about, um,
how Trump's political star began to rise within the Republican Party,
(09:42):
shall we say? Um? I think everyone remembers all the
hubbub surrounding the Tea party ers. Um, Trump kind of
became a figurehead within that community. And then give us
a quick rundown of what the Tea Party was all about.
So the Tea Party was in The Tea Party is
still active. Uh, was fighting from their perspective, like it's
(10:07):
become more of the establishment, the Republican establishment now. But
when they were they were protesting the federal government and
they had um conservative positions. Uh. They wanted a reduction
in the debt and the federal deficit. Also wanted lower taxes,
so you could say, uh oh when they were against them.
(10:30):
The healthcare movements of the time, which became what is
optimized opponents called Obamacare, often called um universal healthcare by
the by its supporters. But I don't think it's quite
universal healthcare. Well it's not, but the it's sort of
a mixture of some thoughts from libertarian ends of the
spectrum and populist and conservative activism. So slightly over ten
(10:56):
percent of U. S Citizens identify by as Tea Party,
so this is not a small amount of people. But
Donald Trump became sort of attached with that. And what's
interesting is the the populist rise, which we will talk
about later on in the show. Uh. The populace rise
has created a situation where arguably the party insiders and
(11:21):
the party officials of the Republican side are not representing
the interests of the Republican voters, many of whom do
support this candidate, but a lot of the insiders, you know,
the governors, the congress folks and stuff, uh, don't support them.
Hence the Tea Party name referencing the Boston Tea Party
(11:42):
where they were protesting or the colonists were protesting the
fact that they were being taxed by their British overlords,
um and it was not benefiting them in any way.
They were basically shipping their money overseas and it was
not doing them any favors. So I think the idea airs.
You know, the federal government is not here for us.
(12:04):
We need to protest it and make it more about
what the actual people need. Right. That is the you know,
on paper, that is what the idea is. And similar
to the occupied protest from recent history, the Tea Party
movement doesn't have a central leader, so a lot of
the positions at various state level organizations are are going
(12:26):
to emphasize different things. It's not a monolithic thing, but
it did become attached and associated with Donald Trump in
the public eye because of the allegations he made her
questions he had regarding the backgrounds of Barack Obama, because
that goes well back, even into Barack Obama's first term, right,
(12:47):
like we're talking two thousand ten, two thousand nine. I
remember seeing billboards up about the birth certificates in rural
Georgia way back then. It's interesting, Oh, you're absolutely right, man, i'
I'm just again. It was definitely during his first term,
it was around oh eight, Um. Yeah. But so Trump
was the guy who kind of became this figurehead of
(13:08):
this birther notion that Barack Obama was not legit legitimate
president because of his place of birth, his origins were
not in this country. Um. He positive that Obama was
not in fact born in the United States and ultimately
compelling Barack Obama to release a birth certificate the show
(13:29):
that he was in fact born in Hawaii. But there's
a lot to being made of this birth idea, and
Trump gained a lot of prominence right because of that.
And at this point, it's it's interesting to explores policy
history because when you hear people running for almost any
political office, people will always talk about the record. Right,
(13:51):
most of the presidential candidates that you'll see in our
lifetimes have uh some sort of legislative experience, as you know,
a governor or a senator of some sort, or work
in Congress. However, um, Donald Trump is a little bit
different because he's basing his experience on the business world
(14:12):
rather than the world of civil service. And this has
led his opponents, both within and without the GOP too,
to say that he is not entirely trustworthy. They point
out that his positions have changed over time, specifically stuff
(14:33):
like abortion, gun control, healthcare, UM, and you can you
can see his policy issues. This is something I think
everybody should do. If you are going to vote and
you want to skip the bread and circuses of talking
points bandied about in what purports to be a policy
discussion called the debate, what you can do very simply
(14:56):
is you can go to a search engine and just
typing name and type in the policies, just the word policies,
and you'll get a fact sheet that has direct quotes
on record from either the Clinton campaign or the Trump
campaign saying what what they stand for and whether that
has changed over time, and a lot of times you'll
(15:17):
get to see if they've ever held in office, say
a congressional office. You can see exactly what they've voted
for in the past that they voted against. Um, it's much,
like you said, been much better than listening to all
the talk around a subject. So other opponents say it's
weird that he has been a large supporter of democratic
endeavors in the past in his recent history though, like
(15:39):
Noel said, when he was in the public eye and
when he decided to pursue the Republican nomination, a lot
of Republicans thought it was sort of a novelty and
there were so many candidates, and he shot to the front. Yeah,
I remember, do you guys remember when The Daily Show
first started covering it, back when John Stewart was still there.
(15:59):
I don't know if you guys the Daily Show at all?
Are you listening out there? But he was just a
It was taken as this big joke in every news
outlet that it was just, oh, we'll ignore him or
leave him alone. But everybody talked about ignoring it. Oh
it was for a while until it wasn't. Yeah, it's
and it is now the primary front runners. So the
(16:21):
odds are most people who vote on November eight are
going to vote for either him or his primary rival,
Hillary Clinton. At this point, we see that there there
are questions. I do think everybody should check out the
policies of whatever candidate you're going to vote for or against.
(16:43):
UH recent history, the big things he has are planning
to renegotiate trade deals. This is big on that aspect
of foreign policy, building a physical wall to separate Mexico
and the end thereby Central and South America from the
United it States. UH. The information on that has changed
(17:04):
or evolved as policy wonks like to say, bringing back
law and order to all of the land. I know
that's one of his big policy stances, right, A lot
of a lot of support from fraternal organization and police outfits.
But here's the thing. Both Donald Trump supporters and Donald
(17:27):
Trump opponents believe that there is more to the story,
that there is something the mainstream media doesn't want you
to know. And we'll hop right into that after a
quick sponsor break. Here's where it gets crazy. So there's
(17:47):
so many um conspiracy theories, fringe theories. Similar coworkers like
to call them, UH rumors, scuttle but allegations claims both
about Donald Trump, against him, for him, and in some
cases by the man himself. So we talked about this
previously in our political conspiracy episode. The biggest one out there,
(18:12):
the one that you have written to us the most about,
is the idea that Donald Trump is a false flag candidate,
because we talked about him running for office, but we
didn't say the entire story. If you missed our previous episode,
we do recommend you check it out. Probably needs an update.
Topical stuff always well. Uh. A few weeks before he
(18:33):
announces his candidacy, he has an off the record phone
call with former president Mr Bill Clinton. Mr Bill Clinton,
Mr Bill meant Juliet Clinton and uh, and so apparently,
you know, they both maintained that they forged to know,
conspiratorial alliance or whatever. But a lot of people now
(18:57):
think that Donald Trump was running without the intention to
become president, that he was running to secure a Clinton nomination,
And more and more people argue that that is the
case now based on recent stuff. It doesn't seem like
like it seems like he does want to be president, right,
it appears that he does. And if he doesn't want
(19:19):
to be president, he's certainly doing a good job of
acting like it. So he's a great actor if if
he is uh a false flag candidate, I would say
being on the phone like that with someone who is
your potential opponents spouse in that way, like right before,
you know, making a decision like that or going out
to to run a race like that, it seems a
(19:41):
little fishy. I no matter how you look at it,
I'll tell you, guys, you know, I picture the phone
called going a little something like this. Yeah, go for it, man.
You know you only live once, right, Yeah, it's gonna
be huge, huge, It's gonna be the best. That's campaign.
You remember, do you remember block Us does Circus City Circuit? Yes? Yes, huge, fantastic, unbelievable.
(20:06):
Thank you Bill, Bill, are you talking to Donald Trump again? Bill?
Get off the found out. I'm gonna let you go.
Thank you? All right, right, all right, Oh gosh, Well
we solve the case. Guys. I think I think it's fine.
I think they're just pals who hang around and allegedly
(20:27):
assault women. Sometimes it's called locker room talk. Okay. And
second of all, um, I have a theory just about
this whole rigamarole here. I think what is more likely
than Bill Clinton urged Donald Trump in a phone call
is that this is the only basis for this false
flag discussion. This is that's the primary basis. The other
(20:51):
the other thing people presented as evidence would be his
past associations with Clinton foundations. Yeah, there's a lot of
pictures of them. We're looking real cozy at a Trump's
wet or they're all you know, locking arms. You know,
it was like a family photo. But here's my thing.
I think what's more likely is that Trump, knowing how
much earned media he would get, how much you know,
(21:15):
free advertising for his brand he would get just by
launching this campaign, did it being relatively sure that he
was not going to get the nomination, that he was
just kind of going to bank on the book deals
and all of the renewed interest in the Trump brand
that he would get from being in the public eye
in this way, maybe get some sort of consulting job
(21:36):
or some cushy something or other to add to his
own television channel. Well that we'll talk about that a
little bit. But then there came a time where, oh, crap,
this is really happening. You know, I wasn't expecting this,
and the tide turned and now you know, home he's
got the nomination and he's got a role with it,
doesn't he. I feel like South Park's doing a great
(21:59):
job in the season where they're hitting that nail on
the head. That's true. And it's like, you know a
lot of people say, God, could he be could he
do anything else to torpedo his candidacy even more? It's
like he can say anything. He even said himself, I
could walk out into you know, on Fifth Avenue and
shoot someone dead and that's still get the votes that
it brings us to our second point, perhaps right right.
(22:22):
So in that case, then another another edge to that
theory would be the idea that originally he wasn't planning
to do this and then decided and then either went
rogue or said I have a chance, i'man to go
for it. And then you'll hear stuff. You'll you'll hear
people say or alleged that he actually does not want
(22:44):
to be president. Some of these sources I would discount
because one of them is, UH documentary and Michael Moore,
who obviously has has a bias. Uh have you heard
about his secret film he's been working on. It's about
to come out. What's it called? Michael Moore and Trump Lands? Yeah,
I heard about it. I think it did come out.
You know, he would be been working on it more
(23:05):
or less in secret, I think, based on a one
man show that he was going to do in Ohio
and say and uh, he did a last minute screening
of it at the i f C Center in New York,
I want to say yesterday. And now it's I think
playing in l A and it's going to be available
on iTunes um as a download before the election. I
wonder what the reviews are not not clear yet, um,
(23:26):
but you know, you know, I haven't seen a Michael
Moore film in quite a while. I was really a
pretty big fan of Bowling for Columbine, and I thought
Fahrenheon and eleven was a little divisive, but it was
it was interesting. He definitely has a perspective first that way,
and he certainly made documentaries entertaining, not not like as
(23:46):
a whole genre, but he definitely kind of spearheaded this
sort of comical yet topical and pretty deep deep diving
documentary style. Um. And I think I think it's interesting stuff.
So we'll have to see what that's all about. So
another thing that's a it's a good point here that
a lot of people forget. Yes, I know that if
(24:07):
you are more on the conservative side, it's very easy
to dismiss someone who's clearly as biased as Michael Moore. However,
he is not the only one alleging this. It's not
just the opponents. Uh. The former communications director of the
Make America Great Again Political Action Committee or pack Lady
named Stephanie Sigelski definitely a campaign insider. She also says
(24:31):
that Trump didn't want to be president. She didn't believe
he actually did. Now, you know, at this point, we're
seeing two people's opinions. But that's one of the conspiracy
theories about Donald Trump. Uh. There's the other issue, which
is the tax avoidance. Yeah, tax avoidance seems to be
(24:51):
a big deal that came up heavily in the first
debate and then it continued on throughout um because a
lot of the candida it's on both sides, during the
primaries did release their tax returns. And that's because this
is just kind of the thing you do as you
get closer and closer to the general election. It's referred
to as a tradition. Yes, since Richard Nixon, and I
(25:15):
believe that was around what was that seventy when Richard
Nixon was like trying to withhold his taxes, but like
they had to, they came out eventually over the course
of the years. And that's where you get that famous line,
I'm not a crook, but it's not a it's not
a law. Right. No, No, it's not a law. It's
just one of those tactics to show your own transparency.
(25:38):
And when you don't show of good faith, let's say, yeah, sure, absolutely,
but the the big deals that Trump has decidedly said, no,
I'm not going to do that. He's given a couple excuses.
The main one is that he's under audit, and as
soon as the audit is finished, then he will release
those tax returns. I believe. He also said something about
(25:59):
the Hillary Clinton email thing as a negotiation in the
first debate. The thing about that, though, is early on
in the nomination process, he said that if he were
to be nominated, he would follow that tradition and release
his taxes, and then he kind of backpedaled on that
and turned it into sort of a bargaining chip. And
(26:21):
the thing is, you know, the New York Times released
a portion of a tax return of his that showed
that he had in fact not paid taxes. I believe
it was around in eighteen years because of a reported
loss of close to a billion dollars. So yeah, according
(26:42):
to the New York Times and some records that they obtained,
he declared a nine dred and sixteen million net operating loss.
That's important, their net operating loss in his tax returns. Um.
And that led me like, probably, like you, what the
heck is a net operating loss. Well, it's it's where
the allowable tax deductions if you're a company are greater
(27:06):
than the taxable income the money that you had coming in. Uh.
And when that occurs, then you can actually offset the
amount of taxes you have to pay in the future
because of all of this money that you owe in
the past. So this is legal. This is completely legal
thing that happens. Um. I guess it's a loophole in
a way if you're manipulating how stuff is reported, or
(27:29):
if let's say your income is deferred for a couple
of years, so you have a larger loss in one year. Um.
But I have just a quick I know that sounds
like a bunch of blah blah blah financial talk. I
have a quick example, if you guys don't mind, just
so we can better understand it, take it away. Let's
say there are two taxpayers. One is Ben, the other
(27:50):
one is null. In year one, Ben loses one hundred
thousand dollars. What the hell, man, I hate this example.
What are you gonna do? Man? It's the housing crisis,
Come on in your to However, Ben makes two hundred
thousand dollars because of the housing crisis. See, the problem
can be the solution sometimes. Well, we don't have to
(28:12):
get into how you manipulated the housing market, but you
did a great job. Uh so, net of one hundred
thousand dollars. Now we also have Noel over here. He
makes fifty thousand dollars a year as the manager at
a combination circuit city Blockbuster. Um now, so that first
year fifty thou dollars. In year two, Noel makes that
same fifty thousand dollars due to a lack of upward
(28:34):
mobility at the combination circuit city Blockbuster. Um so, sorry,
but yeah, net one hundred thousand dollars also for Noel.
So right, two taxpayers, one hundred thousand dollars that you've
made in two years. So at the end of this
two year period, both Been and OAL have the same
net income of a hundred thousand dollars. However, without the
use of a net operating loss or this UH, this law,
(28:58):
this rule, Ben to have to pay an additional one
hundred thousand dollars more of income tax than null because
he made that two hundred thousand at once. Uh. The
loss prevention allows Ben to apply that negative one hundred
from the first year onto that second year. So it
just evens things out. So both of these taxpayers in
(29:19):
this example would be paying the same amount of tax. Okay,
I think I I I think I understand. So it
sounds like you're saying this kind of law exists for
a reason. Yeah, And and usually it's for big companies
are dealing with that because sometimes the company is gonna
have to take a loss, like a huge loss and
operating loss exactly. So all right, but still being completely objective. Uh.
(29:47):
While it is not a law to turn to make
your tax information public when running for US president, UH,
it is an expectation, which means it could have a
negative impact on the right. It's also not to say
that we haven't seen candidates who were wildly successful business
people Mitt Romney for example. That's a good point. Yeah,
(30:09):
And also one last thing with the taxes, it also
presents some other issues where there there have been allegations
of maybe foreign involvement, where what kind of business dealings
is Donald Trump have with foreign governments, Especially then when
you look at his foundation and you apply the same
thing to Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and muddy
(30:30):
the water start getting muddy, right, especially with State Department activities.
What's interesting to me though about this particular aspect is
that even though the Times released these pages showing you
know that you paid zero attacks because of this giant loss,
whatever is actually in the tax returns to all of
(30:53):
them must be worse than that. Otherwise, why wouldn't they
have released them to show that this was this was
all there was. Yeah, that's an interesting that's an interesting
question to um. We we do know that a lot
of this is based on public perception, and currently as
(31:14):
we record this, you know, I have to say, listeners,
it's it's difficult for us to parse some of this
because things will change so quickly. We are a few
days away from the future of this country for the
next four years. I will also go ahead and point
out that the power of the presidency is much less
(31:37):
than most Americans imagine. Uh that if you want to
affect change that you would like to see, you have
to act at a local level with state representatives, with communities.
They are going to be welding wielding a lot of power.
But yeah, but the presidency is good, like clearly important,
(31:58):
and that's why people are scrutinizing this stuff. That's why
I don't have the same level of expectation of privacy
as you would if you were just a private citizen. Right,
if you're the president of a bank, you have more
privacy than you do if you're president of the US.
That's just the way the world a little bit. And yet,
(32:21):
strangely Trump doesn't seem to understand that concept, which I
think is fascinating because he's been an entertainer quote unquote,
you know for a long time, made a lot of money, um,
hosting The Apprentice, which is ultimately a reality show kind
of game show. I don't know, hybrid, I guess and um.
But yet you know, when people start revealing things are
(32:43):
digging into his personal business as he's running for office,
he seems shocked, and it's sort of like why why me?
You know, why why are you being mean to me?
Why are people saying these mean things about me? It's
as though he didn't understand after years and years in
the public eye that running for office would would do,
that will create the kind of situation and elections are
(33:05):
the home of dirty tricks. And it's also as though
his camp spent zero time vetting him themselves. That is
a thing that you do, right if you're running for office.
You want to know everything that your opponent could theoretically
dig up on you yourself before they dig it up,
(33:26):
like in the House of Cards or other political thrillers,
where people practice how they will respond to hypothetical situations
or to what they already know will be controversial points.
And An almost feels with Trump every time something has
come to light a lot of times, even something like
from a Howard Stern interview that's totally out there for
anyone to grab, you know, it's almost as though he's
(33:49):
surprised that people have found these things. I mean, you
know again, I just think it's interesting. It sort of
shows maybe a lack of organization or a lack of
forethought in the way this campaign was launched. And to
me calls into question how far he really thought initially
that he was going to go. It's interesting yet, like
(34:09):
did he did again? It goes back to motivation, and
motivation is so difficult to discern. Uh, did he genuinely
expect to get this far? I guess there's a question
A lot of people are asking, So what while we're
on the money, what, what's another conspiracy theory about him? Well,
there's one that is, I guess a little less of
(34:30):
a conspiracy theory, bore of a conspiracy fact in a way. Uh,
And that's that Donald Trump was using charity money money
from the Trump Foundation for his own purposes and also
to fund his his campaign at least early on in
the campaign. Um even to the point where the New
(34:50):
York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman UH sent a notice
of violation to the Trump Foundation on the thirty September,
which was requiring the foundation to submit financial documents within
fifteen days or quote be deemed to be a continuing
fraud upon the people of the State of New York
and leading up to them producing the said documents, they
(35:13):
were ordered to cease and desist all activities all fundraising
in New York State. Yes, exactly, So, yeah, this is
this is interesting too. And the candidate has not really
made any secret of using the system as a business
person to the maximize his profits or or maximize his
(35:35):
position or advantage. As a matter of fact, that was
one of the central tenants he proposed for his ability
to fix the system. Well, it is that I know
how the system works, therefore I am the most qualified
to fix it. Which reminds me of our earlier conversation
about the UM who is on the Federal Reserve Board. Right.
(35:57):
Often these are people with extensive banking experience. So are
they the best or the worst people to fix a system?
It's a lot. I mean, we also see with people
that have worked for big oil companies or the nuclear industry,
UM getting jobs on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the
(36:17):
e p A or the FCC and UH conglomerations for
cable or I s P. Right, So this is great,
that's a great point. Something that we can establish clearly
that may surprise the average the average person is that
a lot of this is similar to wrestling. Okay, and
(36:40):
spoiler alert, wrestling is not Wrestling is often fake, at
least the storylines it is definitely. They are definitely doing
real moves up there. But a lot of these people
were friends behind the scenes, and so a lot of
the politicians who will spout vitriol at one another for
the public blicks, the guilements, amusements. You know, they're gonna
(37:05):
they're just gonna send their kids to the same schools,
They're gonna be at the same high faluting meetings, they're
gonna play golf together, and they're gonna be like, wow, man,
you really really try to rip me a new one
on that one. And they'll be like, still coming over
for a billiards. Let's not forget that. You know, Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton were once bitter rivals exactly, you know,
(37:27):
just spouting all kinds of vitriol about each other's records
and and just you know, calling into question each other's
character and very very public forums. Actually saw a video
yesterday that a bead you know, Barack Obama on the
campaign trail where he was talking about all the same
things that Trump says about Hillary now, about how she's
(37:47):
in the pocket of big business and big pharma and
Wall Street and just you know, laundry listing all of
these problems with her character and then cutting to now
where he's basically saying, I don't want to pass the
baton to Hillary as she's gonna run with it and
do a fabulous job. And you have to wonder what
kind of back room negotiation those two had, their camps had, right,
(38:08):
or their interests had with them together in a room.
And let's not let listeners forget that. We are going
to get way deep as well. It's gonna get ugly
in the coming week. So I just don't want anybody
to think that we're just picking on you know, Trump. No,
we're we need to say about both. We're universally looking
(38:31):
at uh, two of the most controversial presidential candidates in
recent history. Uh and in a time where you know,
there's so many things that are considered more popular than
just Congress to the presidency, and they're like bad things.
Have you ever checked out that list? I'm gonna pull
up that list. Yeah, hilarious. Oh, all right, here we go.
(38:54):
There's uh, just a few things that are more popular
than uh Congress. Just for example, thirty nine percent of
people surveyed preferred nickelback to Congress because Congress got the
vote and people hate Nickelback, I mean like a lot.
Fifty six percent of Americans have a more favorable opinion
(39:15):
of traffic jams than Congress. Let's see the NFL replacements lice.
UH of Americans have a more favorable opinion of Donald
Trump than Congress. Uh. People like France more than Congress.
People like cockroaches more than Congress. And this this list goes,
(39:38):
this list goes on. Brussels sprouts also made the cut.
And this one. I thought you would like no Carneys.
People are like, you know what, I might not trust Carneys,
but I trust them more than I trust Congress. It's
weird because you can't really elect Carneys anyhow. We're we're
(39:59):
reading this out just the show that they're they're massive,
massively unfavorable views, not just of the individual candidates in
the current race for the presidency, but of the way
the government is working in general, like your local representatives.
(40:20):
And now we're approaching an historic moment because there's something
there's been some very interesting speculation from various media outlets
like The Boston Globe, Box in New York Times that
we may run into a very very strange situation when
the election actually happens yeah, well, what if whichever candidate
(40:44):
loses just decides not to concede. Specifically, we're gonna say
Donald Trump here because he doesn't believe that the results
are accurate or correct or if they have been rigged
in some way. Well, but but here's the thing. They
these organizations are kind are there really are speculating with
this because Donald Trump has never come out and fully
(41:06):
stated that he he won't concede if he loses. He
has made some statements that are you know, you could
take maybe in that context, but he's never said it.
There's a there's a quote here from the New York Times.
Um says Mr Trump, aiming to unnerve ms. Clinton even
indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their first
(41:28):
debate that he would absolutely support her if she won
in November, saying, quote, we're gonna have to see. We're
gonna have to see what happens. We're gonna have to see.
So I mean that right there, that quote is it
doesn't mean anything, right, just saying we're going to have
to see what happens over and over. Sure that wasn't
a quote from the movie Taxi Driver. But did that
(41:50):
sound like DeNiro? I don't know. I'm sorry if something
happened to it. We also know we have to consider
that if you're running for president, uh, when it's now
it's like down to the wire, you don't want to
put something out in the eco system of ideas that
(42:11):
acknowledges there's a possibility that you would lose. Right, it's
not a good position. I don't know why I got
a little Italian that it's position. I would just say
that we have seen this in our lifetimes where a
candidate decided not to concede immediately, do you guys. You
guys probably remember the Bush George W. Bush and al
Gore in two thousand with the hanging Chad's and everything
(42:34):
in Florida and all all that stuff, where it was
so close, neither candidate would concede. So it continued and
continued and continued along till you got to the other
processes where it went to the Supreme Court, it went
to the House of Representatives. So it's just, you know,
we have another potential situation like that here, um, and
(42:54):
if one candidate just decides not to concede, then who
knows what happens. We'll we'll find out, right, We'll see,
we'll have to see it now. It's also time, while
we're waiting on the results there, to move on to
theories espoused by Donald Trump. But first a word from
our sponsor, and we're back and it's time to explore
(43:21):
I think in detail the stuff we alluded to earlier,
the birther movement. So the concept is essentially like you
said that President Barack Obama was born not in Hawaii
but in Kenya and was a secret Muslim. Uh. There
are statements regarding that where they were presented. Someone is hearsay.
(43:45):
Donald Trump, in an earlier debate, had said that he
considered it a victory because he asked, he wanted to
see this birth certificate, and he did get the birth certificate,
so he considers it. Uh, good move, the right thing
to do. Um. But that birth certificate, it wasn't the
long form, was it. Guy. Uh. I'll read a quote
(44:07):
that he told radio host Laura Ingram in two thousand eleven.
He said, he kind of give a birth certificate referring
to a Barack Obama. He doesn't have a birth certificate,
or if he does, there's something on that certificate that's
very bad for him. Now, someone told me and I
have no idea whether this is bad for him or not.
But perhaps it would be that where it says religion,
it might have Muslim, and if you're a Muslim, you
(44:27):
don't change your religion, by the way. But somebody said
maybe that's the reason he doesn't want to show it.
I don't think so. I just don't think he has
a birth certificate, and everybody has a birth certificate. So
this what he's what he's doing here is he he
did acknowledge that people had the secret Muslim thing, but
he said he doesn't personally believe in that, but he
(44:49):
is he is suggesting. He's not outright saying he's he's
suggesting that there's something there and he wants to have proof.
So this is, as an old pointed out, one of
the things that really launched him, um because he was
known and and lauded as a businessman before, but was
(45:09):
always a controversial figure. Right. People thought he was larger
than life, people in other countries saw him as a
stereotype of America, you know. Uh so he had at
different times he had gone on Twitter famously and said
stuff like, um, poles are starting to look really bad
(45:30):
for Obama. Looks like left to start a war, major
conflict to win. Don't put it past him. Kind of
a wag the dog situation and the the idea about
the birthard movement has followed him to the current election.
But it seems like when he said, well, this is
what I did. I asked for the birth certificate and
(45:51):
received it, it seems like they have quelled that or
moved on to another controversy because things are popping up
left and right. Maybe it's poor choice of words, or
maybe it's apt, but there are just so many controversies
it's difficult to keep track of. Uh. He also alleges
that former Supreme Court Justice Scalia was murdered. Uh. And
(46:15):
when when I say alleges, he's just raising suspicions. And
this is something that a lot of people thought about.
You know, you guys, we we all talked about this
off air when Scalia passed away. So yeah, anytime the
circumstances surrounding a death of a highly important person like
Justice Scalia, Uh, when the circumstances are a bit strange,
(46:39):
even just kind of off being at a private hunting
what is it, a private hunting club in the middle
of nowhere, I mean, it's just it raises questions, and
that's the kind of thing that Donald Trump is doing.
I think in general, listen, man, when you have when
you go, when you hunt people on your private island,
you know someone's gonna get hurt. Yeah, just usually it's
(47:03):
the people that you've I was, I was gonna say,
captured the poor people. Uh yeah, iced tea yea from
surviving the game or I mean, I think as long
as you are hunting for sustenance, you know, if you're
hunting for trophies, that's weird, you know, but hunt if
(47:23):
you if you eat what you're hunting. Oh boy, we
already did a canibalism episode this gentleman. I'm kidding and
have never knowingly consumed human flesh. But if you want
to hear Donald Trump's thoughts about anton Scalia, you can
go to I Think is It Mike Savages show that
he went on and he talked about this stuff. So
I think he may have also either mentioned or appeared
(47:46):
on Alex Jones Info Wars. So here's the big one
that he said several times. They got a lot of
public attention, and I like to hear what you guys
think about this. Saying that the election is rigged. Remember
how we mentioned party officials in the GOP not being
on board with the Trump presidency and in many cases
(48:09):
going against the wishes of the Republican voting population. They
were livid when they heard about this. So state level
secretaries in the Republican Party would say things like, well,
just give us proof that you're saying this is rigged.
Give us proof, let us know how we can improve
(48:30):
the system instead of coming out and making allegations. Uh.
He also said that there could be voter fraud occurring, right, Yes,
he said that the Clinton campaign is planning massive voter
fraud in quote certain areas. Um. And he's also calling
on his supporters in a lot of yeah, these areas
(48:52):
to kind of function as vigilantes in a way, like
monitor the election at polling places, which is illegal depending
on how they go. Yeah, and I mean this is
a This is another thing about this candidate is his
A lot of his language is very divisive in that
way where he can kind of backtrack and say, well,
I didn't exactly say that. I said, you know, keep
an eye out, but I didn't say go to the
(49:15):
polling places. You know. It's very you know, if it
can be interpreted as marching orders for his followers. But
then you can kind of go back and say, well,
now I didn't exactly say that thing. It's up to
them how just they choose to interpret the things that
I say, you know. Um, so that's something that's pretty
unique about this particular candidate that we haven't really seen
(49:37):
another presidential candidate. That's true. And not to make this
too much about the second Clinton campaign, but he did
raise he did raise, uh, pretty pretty valid points about
corruption in the d n C with the handling of
the Bernie Sanders versus Clinton divide amongst the left leaning vote,
(50:00):
and uh, the role of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, which did
we discuss this in an earlier podcast we sleep saving
it for next week? No, we we we hit Debbie
Wasserman Schultz pretty hard right before the stuff really hit
the fan. Well, she will be making return appearance next
week in our Clinton episode, So everyone who wants to
tune in for that please do so. Also, the guy's
(50:27):
got a point when it comes to electronic voting machines, right,
I mean, it's been seen in the past. There are
several instances where some of the older models will be
purchased by someone tinkered with in a very short amount
of time and showing that yes, you can absolutely rig
this machine. If you are alone with it for you know,
a couple of hours, you can set it up to
(50:49):
spit out whatever results you want. And if you're interested
in hearing some more about the facts fiction controversy surrounding
voting machines, please check out resnap the sort of tech
stuff with our buddy Jonathan Strickland and I, where we
discuss the history of voting machines, the problems with voting machines,
(51:10):
and the ease with which results are skewed. Now you know,
the one good thing is that voting machines aren't used
across the United States in every county in every state. However,
there are using a lot of places, specifically into Cab County,
where I am so yeha. That being said, though, there
(51:30):
they are decentralized to the point where they're not on
some sort of network where you know, a single um
god view exists where you could tamper with you know
them in bulk. It would require an individual to do
something to tamper with a single machine. So I mean
the logistics to me of really legitimately quote unquote rigging
(51:56):
an election. It really strikes me as a bit of
a stretch. That's just me. I hear you, I see
what you're saying. And you know, most Americans nowadays have
less and less faith in this sort of system. Right,
you learn about the electoral college, which is essentially a
way of ensuring well preventing mobable, but also a way
(52:19):
of creating an opportunity for parties to ignore the people. Right.
It's also a way of kind of neutering the voter
as an individual, you know, I mean, like as far
as taking away what we perceive as being this right
one vote, you know, one individual, one vote, but it's
really treated much more in like blocks, you know, right,
(52:41):
and do do you know it calls into a question
the the system. I'm going to do a crass comparison here.
So without questioning the system, especially in era where a
lot of people don't care for either candidate, particularly with that,
without seching the system, we're not as a nation making
(53:03):
the progress we could make, because otherwise we're like people
choosing between like should I eat these nails or should
I eat uh this this these glass shards and no
one's like, hey, maybe we shouldn't eat either, Maybe we
should eat something that's you know, food. Uh. So, well,
I was watching pundits discuss the fact that Donald Trump
(53:23):
is calling into question the system of our democracy itself
and how we elect officials, and he was defending it
in a way that you would defend the flag or
maybe the national anthem standing up in the national anthem.
How how people get so emotionally distraught when something like
that is called into question And I really see that, man,
(53:45):
I see, I see that that that is a huge issue.
If we can't even critically think about something. Should there
be um coalition governments like the way some European nations
handle it, you know where they say, okay, third three
of people voted for party A, so that has to
be a representative of that voted for B, you know,
(54:06):
et cetera. Until you hit I do not know the answer.
And we have just touched on some of the theory
surrounding this candidate. And again to emphasize, uh, the GOP officials, Congress, folks, governors,
so on, large factions of them do not support this candidate,
(54:29):
despite the fact that many of the voters they are
representing have chosen this guy, regardless of what you think
that is. That is a fact. Is this a case
of the people versus their own party, or the party
versus their own people. The controversy surrounding both of these
candidates indicates a higher chance than usual of third parties
garnering more votes, specifically of course Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate,
(54:53):
and the Green Party candidate Jill Stein as of right now,
which could change you know next week. UH At five
thirty eight the election forecast and statistics that run by
Nate Silver. You can see that there they're predicting UM
pretty high, pretty high numbers as far as UM polling goes.
(55:19):
But these numbers can these numbers can change pretty rapidly.
But Nate Silver has earned a reputation for having less
inaccurate predictions. He's got the good algorithms, the best algorithms.
Nate Silver, right, unbelievable. You won't believe his algorithms. UH.
But we hope that you have appreciated this episode, and
(55:44):
we hope that you will tune in for our next
episode UH even closer to the election, wherein we cover
the facts, fiction, and controversy surrounding UH. The other candidate
or the other large candidates. Uh. Democratic nomination holder Hillary
Rodham Clinton. I wanted to talk to you guys really
(56:05):
fast before we completely close and get to the skidooche
moment that we've all been waiting for. Uh. How how
do you guys think media coverage has played a role
in in this election and shaping how the candidates are
Because it occurs to me that if you want to
rig an election, rather than you know, going through and
(56:28):
actually physically rigging the electronic voting machines by doing all
kinds of huge amounts of new voters coming in with
the registrations, all of the effort that takes, couldn't you
just somewhat control how the media covers your candidates. And
I think that's exactly what Donald Trump is arguing. I
(56:48):
think when he says that the the election is being rigged,
I mean, he's so vague and the things that he says,
but I think largely what he's planting to is the
fact that the media is to us into the media
has turned on him. It seems like, in his opinion,
they have gone from just reporting every inflammatory thing that
(57:11):
he does or says to covering allegations that in his
mind have not been proven, and he feels as though
that is inherently bias in my opinion the way it
seems from the way he's describing it, and is an
attack directly on his candidacy that maybe has been manipulated
(57:36):
orchestrated in some way by his opponent, and in his mind,
as it seems, there is some collusion going on between
his opponent, Hillary Clinton and the quote unquote liberal media.
The problem there, to me, though, is big part of
Donald Trump's meteoric rise has been the fact that he billions.
(58:01):
I want to say, there's a figure that I saw
in free advertising just by going on shows, just by
going on shows being a ratings machine, you know, like
someone that that these networks knew that if they did
stories on him or whatever new thing he said, people
(58:22):
were gonna click on it, People were gonna watch it,
people were going to tune him because they wanted to
see where it was gonna go, because it is so unprecedented.
So to me, I think it's sort of does not
ring true, and it's sort of a hollow argument to say, oh, well,
now the media is turning on me. You know, the
very media that raised me up to my position of
prominence here is now my enemy. Yeah, I think you know,
(58:48):
there's another thing here that people don't talk about as
much as they should, which is that voter fraud, often
presented as a boogeyman in recent times for various people,
various agendas, doesn't seem to happen as easily as people
may imagine. That'd be like voting multiple times, dead people
(59:12):
voting this this kind of voter for aud right and
voting has been super dirty in American history for for
a long time. So is it possible that elections are corrupt? Certainly? Oh, certainly,
but to what degree and via what means? We'd like
to hear your thoughts on the nature of the political system.
(59:36):
I would like to hear any other conspiracy theories that
you think your fellow listeners should know. And speaking of
fellow listeners, it's that time again shout at conners. Before
we get into the shout outs, I want to thank
everyone for tuning in to our recent shout out Corners Skidoos.
(59:56):
The episode, Um, you know, a lot of people look
at the thos is being kind of like a throwaway
clip show type episode, and we went to a lot
of trouble to make sure that it wasn't and uh,
the listeners seem to enjoy it, and the numbers reflected that.
So we want to thank you guys for tuning in.
Our first correspondence comes from Matthew from quote Foggy London
Town unquote. He sent us a long thought out response
(01:00:19):
about our great game episode. That's going way back there, Matthew. Um,
but we're gonna boil it down to a few questions
that he posed to us. He said, why can't the
American government and their counterparts in Moscow ever get along
and work together like they had done with the success
of I s S, the International Space Station and joint
(01:00:40):
space programs who made the decision to dislike Russia now
and painted as the evil boogeyman again? Is it good
for business for both competing sides to be at loggerheads
to fund this huge military industrial complex. Interesting to have that, Uh,
the opposing force that you must build up arms against, Matthew,
(01:01:01):
that's a fascinating idea. Thank you, Matthew. Those are definitely
some questions that we're going to continue to think about,
and you know, we'll see if it inspires us to
look into it. More in the future, perhaps an update
on the modern group game. But yeah, excellent questions. Who's next?
Vicky in Ohio send us an email with a short
(01:01:21):
list of possible topics, including cern shape shifting, astral projection,
ley lines, and Stromman theory. I would love to cover
shape shifting, astral projections, and lay lines. Yeah, I think
we all this caters to a lot of our individual favorites.
Astral projection is that going out of your body in
(01:01:44):
a trance. Is that specific projects stargate? Okay, there's a
bit of a difference perhaps between remote viewing and astral projection.
People who believe in astro projection believe that some intangible
warm of the person, the spirit or the soul of consciousness. Yeah,
escapes and you can see various artistic interpretations. People often
(01:02:07):
described like a small, uh tendril of sorts connecting them
to their physical body. It's interesting. So yeah, if you
want to hear more about any of those, you wanted
to do an an episode right to us and let
us know. And one more, we have Sharad in North Carolina.
I hope I am pronouncing your name correctly, uh, wrote
in to ask us and the following things. During this
(01:02:31):
election cycle, we've had several instances of oh, here's the
finger quote effect, how is it? Thank you? Leaked documents
and emails, and it seems as if most people are
more interested in what they say instead of where they
came from. Could there be a conspiracy going on that's
meant to make us more comfortable with hacking? Is this
campaign season all just one massive cover up leading us
(01:02:53):
all into an age of non existent privacy? It's a
nice set up for next week. It's BEAUTI full thank
you sir. That is like just sending us right over
the cliff end of the next one, like did privacy
ever exist? What is the nature of privacy? The concept
of privacy really is um much more recent than we
(01:03:16):
would like to pretend at times. And also we're facing
maybe not the extinction of privacy, just growing inequality of privacy.
I submit to you that privacy will be one of
the new currencies or status symbols of the coming age.
So we hope you enjoyed this at least in some
dark way. Uh, this episode on Donald Trump, and next
(01:03:37):
week we're gonna get into, like we said, Hillary Clinton,
If you have any thoughts on anything that we've talked about.
Please find us on Facebook or Twitter. We are conspiracy
Stuff on both of those. You can find us on
Instagram now conspiracy Stuff Show. If you don't already watch
our videos on YouTube, we spend a lot of time
(01:03:58):
on them. We like them a lot, we think he
will too, Head on over to YouTube dot com slash
conspiracy Stuff. And if you don't want to do any
of those things and you just want to talk to
us or send us a suggestion, because our best ideas
always come from you, write us an email. We are
conspiracy at how stuff Works dot com.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. If you can turn back now
or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello,
(00:24):
and welcome back to the show. I am Matt the
Fixer Frederick and I am Noel Minambre is Noel Brown. Uh.
And they called me Ben I guess and you're listening
to h h of all the people I thought you'd
be like on the fly with it. Yeah, well, bet
Benny two hands, ben N two hands, ben N two
(00:47):
hands uh, or my alter ego of course, Max powers
astronaut with a secret. Most importantly, folks you are here,
give us your nickname suggestions if you have some stuff
for Matt Nolan. I uh. This is of course stuff
they don't want you to know. And today we're beginning
(01:08):
the first of a two part series on on something
that requires a disclaimer. And many of you have written
to us on Facebook, on Twitter and email um strange
messages scrawled in backwards print on mirrors in the dark, uh,
saying that you want you want us and your fellow
listeners to explore the conspiracy theory surrounding Donald Trump and
(01:34):
Hillary Clinton. So I was I think, um, initially pretty
hesitant to do this because people can get people, people
can get so wrapped up in stuff and not look
at it in uh in a more objective way. And
I say that because I have been one of those
people in the past. So luckily nol Matt, you guys
(02:00):
were much more level headed than I am. Um. Uh,
let me put in this disclaimer which I'm gonna read
through quickly and if you can help me out before
I before I do anything crazy. Uh So, First, politics, Yes,
there are a passionate touchy thing. And in the United States,
the unfortunate truth is that most citizens are what are
(02:21):
known as low information voters, meaning like somebody might say,
oh man, my dad was a Democrat. His dad was
a Democrat, by golly, I'm a Democrat no matter what,
or just you know, I like the kind of that
guy's jib and his suit, a guy you could sit
down and have a beer with. Yeah, But ultimately it
(02:43):
feels like a team sport, right, I mean, I'm on
this team. I don't know that. That's what I generally
have seen in my family, Like the dichotomy of like, well,
I'm gonna stick with my team the same way, I
don't want those other guys to win. It's more like
being in a really big cult. Okay, oh man, when
(03:04):
are we gonna start. Let's not offend anybody before we
get through the disclaimer though, so let's soldier off. So
this creates a situation in which often actual policy, what
the people in a power will actually do, takes a
backseat to the spectacle reporting of it, you know, like
(03:25):
the gaffs that people make, or the the things they
wear versus the stuff they think. And regardless of someone's
political affiliation, whether you were inside or outside of the
United States, you've probably noticed, especially in the primaries, that
a lot of the conversation on the Republican Democratic side
(03:45):
was not about policy. It was a lot of like, well,
let me tell you about my family relatives, and I'm
just good old slice of honest America. And we and
then we get into the the first two presidential debates,
the third one which is happening tonight, and again, policy
(04:06):
discussion seems to be non existent, or at least a
little blip on the radar of what gets discussed when
these when the politicians are actually speaking, and we've got
our work cut out for us. Today because both candidates,
as we said, are surrounded by conspiracy theories, and in
this episode, we're starting out with the candidate who has
also propagated some theories himself, and that is Donald Trump.
(04:30):
Of course, we're not here to tell you how to
vote if you're voting. We're also not here to do
some kind of Fox News MSNBC thing with you know,
um pushing an agenda on you. This is a collection
of the publicly available facts, arguments, and claims made by
for and against Mr Donald Trump. And yes, yes, next
(04:52):
week we will be back with the exact same sort
of episode centered on the Hillary Clinton campaign. We push
our agendas exclusively subliminal messages and mind control rays right
as required by our sponsor, Illumination Global Unlimited. Moving on. Uh,
so here we go. Let's start with the facts strap in.
(05:14):
It's gonna be a doozy. So who is Donald Trump?
Can you guys tell me a little bit about him?
While Donald J. Trump was born in nineteen forty six,
the year of our Lord and Queens, New York, the
son of a self made real estate mogul by the
name of Fred Trump. Uh. He got his start in
the family business, which was originally known as Elizabeth Trump
(05:36):
and son Um. For a fun fact, Trump's uncle, Dr
John G. Trump, was an m I T. Professor. This
is the fact that Trump, you know, mentions on the
campaign trail occasionally. You know, he comes from smart stock
Um and the FBI once asked him to examine Nikolai
Tesla's papers when Tesla died, in which we have an
(05:59):
episode on because those papers were confiscated for a time
after Tesla expired in abject poverty. By the way, in
Love with a Bird, That is all true, But you
had to quickly get back to the Donald himself. He
was working with his father's company before he graduated college,
(06:20):
and his first project was a building called the Swifton
Village for closed department complex in Cincinnati, Ohio. Right, Yes,
that building there in Cincinnati, and it was a successful
h It was a successful endeavor. His father, Fred had
purchased it for about five point seven million in nine
(06:42):
dollars uh. They invested an additional five hundred thousand in it,
and they turned it its occupacy rate into a hudd
percent from thirty, so it was successful. He Um was
giving control of that come opening in seventy one, and
he changed the name to the Trump Organization and then
(07:05):
began over the next few decades building the brand. Right,
this guy was building brands before a lot of people
realize that. You know, we live in now Snapchat, social media.
Everybody's a brand, right, But this guy was one of
the originators of this sort of promotion, or at least
(07:27):
one of the most successful. And a lot of what
Trump attributes his wealth to UM the specific number, which
is still not entirely clear, is that brand UM And
how you know? According to Mr Trump and his family,
when that brand is attached to something, it instantly is
(07:47):
more valuable or has the potential to earn more. It
is a midas of the names. Yeah, I like you
said that, a midas of marketing and with many different
business endeavors. I mean, we can just off the top
of our heads name various things have been associated. I
mean I'll go first, hotels, casinos, stakes, university for a time,
(08:12):
a board game, oh yeah, an airline in an airline,
yeah man, vodka vodka as well, wow, casinos of course. Yeah.
So these and that's just a small list. So when
you are that publicly prominent and successful, what's what's next?
(08:35):
You know, if you have a bunch of money if
you've had a sense of business experience. Uh. He decided
to run for office, to run for the highest office
in the land in this country, which is commander in chief,
the US presidency. I remember hearing an early early quote
from him discussing, how you know you can I've been
(08:59):
paying off politicians all my career, and you know now
I'm gonna I'm gonna be in control and you can't
pay me off because I'm already a billionaire. Yeah, that's
one of the arguments. And then also he I don't
know how many people know this. Any Trump supporters in
the audience are probably already aware of this. His current
(09:21):
campaign for presidency is not his first time. In the
year two thousands, he briefly pursued nomination for the Reform Party,
and historically third parties don't have much of a shot
here in this country. So let's talk a little bit about, um,
how Trump's political star began to rise within the Republican Party,
(09:42):
shall we say? Um? I think everyone remembers all the
hubbub surrounding the Tea party ers. Um, Trump kind of
became a figurehead within that community. And then give us
a quick rundown of what the Tea Party was all about.
So the Tea Party was in The Tea Party is
still active. Uh, was fighting from their perspective, like it's
(10:07):
become more of the establishment, the Republican establishment now. But
when they were they were protesting the federal government and
they had um conservative positions. Uh. They wanted a reduction
in the debt and the federal deficit. Also wanted lower taxes,
so you could say, uh oh when they were against them.
(10:30):
The healthcare movements of the time, which became what is
optimized opponents called Obamacare, often called um universal healthcare by
the by its supporters. But I don't think it's quite
universal healthcare. Well it's not, but the it's sort of
a mixture of some thoughts from libertarian ends of the
spectrum and populist and conservative activism. So slightly over ten
(10:56):
percent of U. S Citizens identify by as Tea Party,
so this is not a small amount of people. But
Donald Trump became sort of attached with that. And what's
interesting is the the populist rise, which we will talk
about later on in the show. Uh. The populace rise
has created a situation where arguably the party insiders and
(11:21):
the party officials of the Republican side are not representing
the interests of the Republican voters, many of whom do
support this candidate, but a lot of the insiders, you know,
the governors, the congress folks and stuff, uh, don't support them.
Hence the Tea Party name referencing the Boston Tea Party
(11:42):
where they were protesting or the colonists were protesting the
fact that they were being taxed by their British overlords,
um and it was not benefiting them in any way.
They were basically shipping their money overseas and it was
not doing them any favors. So I think the idea airs.
You know, the federal government is not here for us.
(12:04):
We need to protest it and make it more about
what the actual people need. Right. That is the you know,
on paper, that is what the idea is. And similar
to the occupied protest from recent history, the Tea Party
movement doesn't have a central leader, so a lot of
the positions at various state level organizations are are going
(12:26):
to emphasize different things. It's not a monolithic thing, but
it did become attached and associated with Donald Trump in
the public eye because of the allegations he made her
questions he had regarding the backgrounds of Barack Obama, because
that goes well back, even into Barack Obama's first term, right,
(12:47):
like we're talking two thousand ten, two thousand nine. I
remember seeing billboards up about the birth certificates in rural
Georgia way back then. It's interesting, Oh, you're absolutely right, man, i'
I'm just again. It was definitely during his first term,
it was around oh eight, Um. Yeah. But so Trump
was the guy who kind of became this figurehead of
(13:08):
this birther notion that Barack Obama was not legit legitimate
president because of his place of birth, his origins were
not in this country. Um. He positive that Obama was
not in fact born in the United States and ultimately
compelling Barack Obama to release a birth certificate the show
(13:29):
that he was in fact born in Hawaii. But there's
a lot to being made of this birth idea, and
Trump gained a lot of prominence right because of that.
And at this point, it's it's interesting to explores policy
history because when you hear people running for almost any
political office, people will always talk about the record. Right,
(13:51):
most of the presidential candidates that you'll see in our
lifetimes have uh some sort of legislative experience, as you know,
a governor or a senator of some sort, or work
in Congress. However, um, Donald Trump is a little bit
different because he's basing his experience on the business world
(14:12):
rather than the world of civil service. And this has
led his opponents, both within and without the GOP too,
to say that he is not entirely trustworthy. They point
out that his positions have changed over time, specifically stuff
(14:33):
like abortion, gun control, healthcare, UM, and you can you
can see his policy issues. This is something I think
everybody should do. If you are going to vote and
you want to skip the bread and circuses of talking
points bandied about in what purports to be a policy
discussion called the debate, what you can do very simply
(14:56):
is you can go to a search engine and just
typing name and type in the policies, just the word policies,
and you'll get a fact sheet that has direct quotes
on record from either the Clinton campaign or the Trump
campaign saying what what they stand for and whether that
has changed over time, and a lot of times you'll
(15:17):
get to see if they've ever held in office, say
a congressional office. You can see exactly what they've voted
for in the past that they voted against. Um, it's much,
like you said, been much better than listening to all
the talk around a subject. So other opponents say it's
weird that he has been a large supporter of democratic
endeavors in the past in his recent history though, like
(15:39):
Noel said, when he was in the public eye and
when he decided to pursue the Republican nomination, a lot
of Republicans thought it was sort of a novelty and
there were so many candidates, and he shot to the front. Yeah,
I remember, do you guys remember when The Daily Show
first started covering it, back when John Stewart was still there.
(15:59):
I don't know if you guys the Daily Show at all?
Are you listening out there? But he was just a
It was taken as this big joke in every news
outlet that it was just, oh, we'll ignore him or
leave him alone. But everybody talked about ignoring it. Oh
it was for a while until it wasn't. Yeah, it's
and it is now the primary front runners. So the
(16:21):
odds are most people who vote on November eight are
going to vote for either him or his primary rival,
Hillary Clinton. At this point, we see that there there
are questions. I do think everybody should check out the
policies of whatever candidate you're going to vote for or against.
(16:43):
UH recent history, the big things he has are planning
to renegotiate trade deals. This is big on that aspect
of foreign policy, building a physical wall to separate Mexico
and the end thereby Central and South America from the
United it States. UH. The information on that has changed
(17:04):
or evolved as policy wonks like to say, bringing back
law and order to all of the land. I know
that's one of his big policy stances, right, A lot
of a lot of support from fraternal organization and police outfits.
But here's the thing. Both Donald Trump supporters and Donald
(17:27):
Trump opponents believe that there is more to the story,
that there is something the mainstream media doesn't want you
to know. And we'll hop right into that after a
quick sponsor break. Here's where it gets crazy. So there's
(17:47):
so many um conspiracy theories, fringe theories. Similar coworkers like
to call them, UH rumors, scuttle but allegations claims both
about Donald Trump, against him, for him, and in some
cases by the man himself. So we talked about this
previously in our political conspiracy episode. The biggest one out there,
(18:12):
the one that you have written to us the most about,
is the idea that Donald Trump is a false flag candidate,
because we talked about him running for office, but we
didn't say the entire story. If you missed our previous episode,
we do recommend you check it out. Probably needs an update.
Topical stuff always well. Uh. A few weeks before he
(18:33):
announces his candidacy, he has an off the record phone
call with former president Mr Bill Clinton. Mr Bill Clinton,
Mr Bill meant Juliet Clinton and uh, and so apparently,
you know, they both maintained that they forged to know,
conspiratorial alliance or whatever. But a lot of people now
(18:57):
think that Donald Trump was running without the intention to
become president, that he was running to secure a Clinton nomination,
And more and more people argue that that is the
case now based on recent stuff. It doesn't seem like
like it seems like he does want to be president, right,
it appears that he does. And if he doesn't want
(19:19):
to be president, he's certainly doing a good job of
acting like it. So he's a great actor if if
he is uh a false flag candidate, I would say
being on the phone like that with someone who is
your potential opponents spouse in that way, like right before,
you know, making a decision like that or going out
to to run a race like that, it seems a
(19:41):
little fishy. I no matter how you look at it,
I'll tell you, guys, you know, I picture the phone
called going a little something like this. Yeah, go for it, man.
You know you only live once, right, Yeah, it's gonna
be huge, huge, It's gonna be the best. That's campaign.
You remember, do you remember block Us does Circus City Circuit? Yes? Yes, huge, fantastic, unbelievable.
(20:06):
Thank you Bill, Bill, are you talking to Donald Trump again? Bill?
Get off the found out. I'm gonna let you go.
Thank you? All right, right, all right, Oh gosh, Well
we solve the case. Guys. I think I think it's fine.
I think they're just pals who hang around and allegedly
(20:27):
assault women. Sometimes it's called locker room talk. Okay. And
second of all, um, I have a theory just about
this whole rigamarole here. I think what is more likely
than Bill Clinton urged Donald Trump in a phone call
is that this is the only basis for this false
flag discussion. This is that's the primary basis. The other
(20:51):
the other thing people presented as evidence would be his
past associations with Clinton foundations. Yeah, there's a lot of
pictures of them. We're looking real cozy at a Trump's
wet or they're all you know, locking arms. You know,
it was like a family photo. But here's my thing.
I think what's more likely is that Trump, knowing how
much earned media he would get, how much you know,
(21:15):
free advertising for his brand he would get just by
launching this campaign, did it being relatively sure that he
was not going to get the nomination, that he was
just kind of going to bank on the book deals
and all of the renewed interest in the Trump brand
that he would get from being in the public eye
in this way, maybe get some sort of consulting job
(21:36):
or some cushy something or other to add to his
own television channel. Well that we'll talk about that a
little bit. But then there came a time where, oh, crap,
this is really happening. You know, I wasn't expecting this,
and the tide turned and now you know, home he's
got the nomination and he's got a role with it,
doesn't he. I feel like South Park's doing a great
(21:59):
job in the season where they're hitting that nail on
the head. That's true. And it's like, you know a
lot of people say, God, could he be could he
do anything else to torpedo his candidacy even more? It's
like he can say anything. He even said himself, I
could walk out into you know, on Fifth Avenue and
shoot someone dead and that's still get the votes that
it brings us to our second point, perhaps right right.
(22:22):
So in that case, then another another edge to that
theory would be the idea that originally he wasn't planning
to do this and then decided and then either went
rogue or said I have a chance, i'man to go
for it. And then you'll hear stuff. You'll you'll hear
people say or alleged that he actually does not want
(22:44):
to be president. Some of these sources I would discount
because one of them is, UH documentary and Michael Moore,
who obviously has has a bias. Uh have you heard
about his secret film he's been working on. It's about
to come out. What's it called? Michael Moore and Trump Lands? Yeah,
I heard about it. I think it did come out.
You know, he would be been working on it more
(23:05):
or less in secret, I think, based on a one
man show that he was going to do in Ohio
and say and uh, he did a last minute screening
of it at the i f C Center in New York,
I want to say yesterday. And now it's I think
playing in l A and it's going to be available
on iTunes um as a download before the election. I
wonder what the reviews are not not clear yet, um,
(23:26):
but you know, you know, I haven't seen a Michael
Moore film in quite a while. I was really a
pretty big fan of Bowling for Columbine, and I thought
Fahrenheon and eleven was a little divisive, but it was
it was interesting. He definitely has a perspective first that way,
and he certainly made documentaries entertaining, not not like as
(23:46):
a whole genre, but he definitely kind of spearheaded this
sort of comical yet topical and pretty deep deep diving
documentary style. Um. And I think I think it's interesting stuff.
So we'll have to see what that's all about. So
another thing that's a it's a good point here that
a lot of people forget. Yes, I know that if
(24:07):
you are more on the conservative side, it's very easy
to dismiss someone who's clearly as biased as Michael Moore. However,
he is not the only one alleging this. It's not
just the opponents. Uh. The former communications director of the
Make America Great Again Political Action Committee or pack Lady
named Stephanie Sigelski definitely a campaign insider. She also says
(24:31):
that Trump didn't want to be president. She didn't believe
he actually did. Now, you know, at this point, we're
seeing two people's opinions. But that's one of the conspiracy
theories about Donald Trump. Uh. There's the other issue, which
is the tax avoidance. Yeah, tax avoidance seems to be
(24:51):
a big deal that came up heavily in the first
debate and then it continued on throughout um because a
lot of the candida it's on both sides, during the
primaries did release their tax returns. And that's because this
is just kind of the thing you do as you
get closer and closer to the general election. It's referred
to as a tradition. Yes, since Richard Nixon, and I
(25:15):
believe that was around what was that seventy when Richard
Nixon was like trying to withhold his taxes, but like
they had to, they came out eventually over the course
of the years. And that's where you get that famous line,
I'm not a crook, but it's not a it's not
a law. Right. No, No, it's not a law. It's
just one of those tactics to show your own transparency.
(25:38):
And when you don't show of good faith, let's say, yeah, sure, absolutely,
but the the big deals that Trump has decidedly said, no,
I'm not going to do that. He's given a couple excuses.
The main one is that he's under audit, and as
soon as the audit is finished, then he will release
those tax returns. I believe. He also said something about
(25:59):
the Hillary Clinton email thing as a negotiation in the
first debate. The thing about that, though, is early on
in the nomination process, he said that if he were
to be nominated, he would follow that tradition and release
his taxes, and then he kind of backpedaled on that
and turned it into sort of a bargaining chip. And
(26:21):
the thing is, you know, the New York Times released
a portion of a tax return of his that showed
that he had in fact not paid taxes. I believe
it was around in eighteen years because of a reported
loss of close to a billion dollars. So yeah, according
(26:42):
to the New York Times and some records that they obtained,
he declared a nine dred and sixteen million net operating loss.
That's important, their net operating loss in his tax returns. Um.
And that led me like, probably, like you, what the
heck is a net operating loss. Well, it's it's where
the allowable tax deductions if you're a company are greater
(27:06):
than the taxable income the money that you had coming in. Uh.
And when that occurs, then you can actually offset the
amount of taxes you have to pay in the future
because of all of this money that you owe in
the past. So this is legal. This is completely legal
thing that happens. Um. I guess it's a loophole in
a way if you're manipulating how stuff is reported, or
(27:29):
if let's say your income is deferred for a couple
of years, so you have a larger loss in one year. Um.
But I have just a quick I know that sounds
like a bunch of blah blah blah financial talk. I
have a quick example, if you guys don't mind, just
so we can better understand it, take it away. Let's
say there are two taxpayers. One is Ben, the other
(27:50):
one is null. In year one, Ben loses one hundred
thousand dollars. What the hell, man, I hate this example.
What are you gonna do? Man? It's the housing crisis,
Come on in your to However, Ben makes two hundred
thousand dollars because of the housing crisis. See, the problem
can be the solution sometimes. Well, we don't have to
(28:12):
get into how you manipulated the housing market, but you
did a great job. Uh so, net of one hundred
thousand dollars. Now we also have Noel over here. He
makes fifty thousand dollars a year as the manager at
a combination circuit city Blockbuster. Um now, so that first
year fifty thou dollars. In year two, Noel makes that
same fifty thousand dollars due to a lack of upward
(28:34):
mobility at the combination circuit city Blockbuster. Um so, sorry,
but yeah, net one hundred thousand dollars also for Noel.
So right, two taxpayers, one hundred thousand dollars that you've
made in two years. So at the end of this
two year period, both Been and OAL have the same
net income of a hundred thousand dollars. However, without the
use of a net operating loss or this UH, this law,
(28:58):
this rule, Ben to have to pay an additional one
hundred thousand dollars more of income tax than null because
he made that two hundred thousand at once. Uh. The
loss prevention allows Ben to apply that negative one hundred
from the first year onto that second year. So it
just evens things out. So both of these taxpayers in
(29:19):
this example would be paying the same amount of tax. Okay,
I think I I I think I understand. So it
sounds like you're saying this kind of law exists for
a reason. Yeah, And and usually it's for big companies
are dealing with that because sometimes the company is gonna
have to take a loss, like a huge loss and
operating loss exactly. So all right, but still being completely objective. Uh.
(29:47):
While it is not a law to turn to make
your tax information public when running for US president, UH,
it is an expectation, which means it could have a
negative impact on the right. It's also not to say
that we haven't seen candidates who were wildly successful business
people Mitt Romney for example. That's a good point. Yeah,
(30:09):
And also one last thing with the taxes, it also
presents some other issues where there there have been allegations
of maybe foreign involvement, where what kind of business dealings
is Donald Trump have with foreign governments, Especially then when
you look at his foundation and you apply the same
thing to Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and muddy
(30:30):
the water start getting muddy, right, especially with State Department activities.
What's interesting to me though about this particular aspect is
that even though the Times released these pages showing you
know that you paid zero attacks because of this giant loss,
whatever is actually in the tax returns to all of
(30:53):
them must be worse than that. Otherwise, why wouldn't they
have released them to show that this was this was
all there was. Yeah, that's an interesting that's an interesting
question to um. We we do know that a lot
of this is based on public perception, and currently as
(31:14):
we record this, you know, I have to say, listeners,
it's it's difficult for us to parse some of this
because things will change so quickly. We are a few
days away from the future of this country for the
next four years. I will also go ahead and point
out that the power of the presidency is much less
(31:37):
than most Americans imagine. Uh that if you want to
affect change that you would like to see, you have
to act at a local level with state representatives, with communities.
They are going to be welding wielding a lot of power.
But yeah, but the presidency is good, like clearly important,
(31:58):
and that's why people are scrutinizing this stuff. That's why
I don't have the same level of expectation of privacy
as you would if you were just a private citizen. Right,
if you're the president of a bank, you have more
privacy than you do if you're president of the US.
That's just the way the world a little bit. And yet,
(32:21):
strangely Trump doesn't seem to understand that concept, which I
think is fascinating because he's been an entertainer quote unquote,
you know for a long time, made a lot of money, um,
hosting The Apprentice, which is ultimately a reality show kind
of game show. I don't know, hybrid, I guess and um.
But yet you know, when people start revealing things are
(32:43):
digging into his personal business as he's running for office,
he seems shocked, and it's sort of like why why me?
You know, why why are you being mean to me?
Why are people saying these mean things about me? It's
as though he didn't understand after years and years in
the public eye that running for office would would do,
that will create the kind of situation and elections are
(33:05):
the home of dirty tricks. And it's also as though
his camp spent zero time vetting him themselves. That is
a thing that you do, right if you're running for office.
You want to know everything that your opponent could theoretically
dig up on you yourself before they dig it up,
(33:26):
like in the House of Cards or other political thrillers,
where people practice how they will respond to hypothetical situations
or to what they already know will be controversial points.
And An almost feels with Trump every time something has
come to light a lot of times, even something like
from a Howard Stern interview that's totally out there for
anyone to grab, you know, it's almost as though he's
(33:49):
surprised that people have found these things. I mean, you
know again, I just think it's interesting. It sort of
shows maybe a lack of organization or a lack of
forethought in the way this campaign was launched. And to
me calls into question how far he really thought initially
that he was going to go. It's interesting yet, like
(34:09):
did he did again? It goes back to motivation, and
motivation is so difficult to discern. Uh, did he genuinely
expect to get this far? I guess there's a question
A lot of people are asking, So what while we're
on the money, what, what's another conspiracy theory about him? Well,
there's one that is, I guess a little less of
(34:30):
a conspiracy theory, bore of a conspiracy fact in a way. Uh,
And that's that Donald Trump was using charity money money
from the Trump Foundation for his own purposes and also
to fund his his campaign at least early on in
the campaign. Um even to the point where the New
(34:50):
York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman UH sent a notice
of violation to the Trump Foundation on the thirty September,
which was requiring the foundation to submit financial documents within
fifteen days or quote be deemed to be a continuing
fraud upon the people of the State of New York
and leading up to them producing the said documents, they
(35:13):
were ordered to cease and desist all activities all fundraising
in New York State. Yes, exactly, So, yeah, this is
this is interesting too. And the candidate has not really
made any secret of using the system as a business
person to the maximize his profits or or maximize his
(35:35):
position or advantage. As a matter of fact, that was
one of the central tenants he proposed for his ability
to fix the system. Well, it is that I know
how the system works, therefore I am the most qualified
to fix it. Which reminds me of our earlier conversation
about the UM who is on the Federal Reserve Board. Right.
(35:57):
Often these are people with extensive banking experience. So are
they the best or the worst people to fix a system?
It's a lot. I mean, we also see with people
that have worked for big oil companies or the nuclear industry,
UM getting jobs on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the
(36:17):
e p A or the FCC and UH conglomerations for
cable or I s P. Right, So this is great,
that's a great point. Something that we can establish clearly
that may surprise the average the average person is that
a lot of this is similar to wrestling. Okay, and
(36:40):
spoiler alert, wrestling is not Wrestling is often fake, at
least the storylines it is definitely. They are definitely doing
real moves up there. But a lot of these people
were friends behind the scenes, and so a lot of
the politicians who will spout vitriol at one another for
the public blicks, the guilements, amusements. You know, they're gonna
(37:05):
they're just gonna send their kids to the same schools,
They're gonna be at the same high faluting meetings, they're
gonna play golf together, and they're gonna be like, wow, man,
you really really try to rip me a new one
on that one. And they'll be like, still coming over
for a billiards. Let's not forget that. You know, Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton were once bitter rivals exactly, you know,
(37:27):
just spouting all kinds of vitriol about each other's records
and and just you know, calling into question each other's
character and very very public forums. Actually saw a video
yesterday that a bead you know, Barack Obama on the
campaign trail where he was talking about all the same
things that Trump says about Hillary now, about how she's
(37:47):
in the pocket of big business and big pharma and
Wall Street and just you know, laundry listing all of
these problems with her character and then cutting to now
where he's basically saying, I don't want to pass the
baton to Hillary as she's gonna run with it and
do a fabulous job. And you have to wonder what
kind of back room negotiation those two had, their camps had, right,
(38:08):
or their interests had with them together in a room.
And let's not let listeners forget that. We are going
to get way deep as well. It's gonna get ugly
in the coming week. So I just don't want anybody
to think that we're just picking on you know, Trump. No,
we're we need to say about both. We're universally looking
(38:31):
at uh, two of the most controversial presidential candidates in
recent history. Uh and in a time where you know,
there's so many things that are considered more popular than
just Congress to the presidency, and they're like bad things.
Have you ever checked out that list? I'm gonna pull
up that list. Yeah, hilarious. Oh, all right, here we go.
(38:54):
There's uh, just a few things that are more popular
than uh Congress. Just for example, thirty nine percent of
people surveyed preferred nickelback to Congress because Congress got the
vote and people hate Nickelback, I mean like a lot.
Fifty six percent of Americans have a more favorable opinion
(39:15):
of traffic jams than Congress. Let's see the NFL replacements lice.
UH of Americans have a more favorable opinion of Donald
Trump than Congress. Uh. People like France more than Congress.
People like cockroaches more than Congress. And this this list goes,
(39:38):
this list goes on. Brussels sprouts also made the cut.
And this one. I thought you would like no Carneys.
People are like, you know what, I might not trust Carneys,
but I trust them more than I trust Congress. It's
weird because you can't really elect Carneys anyhow. We're we're
(39:59):
reading this out just the show that they're they're massive,
massively unfavorable views, not just of the individual candidates in
the current race for the presidency, but of the way
the government is working in general, like your local representatives.
(40:20):
And now we're approaching an historic moment because there's something
there's been some very interesting speculation from various media outlets
like The Boston Globe, Box in New York Times that
we may run into a very very strange situation when
the election actually happens yeah, well, what if whichever candidate
(40:44):
loses just decides not to concede. Specifically, we're gonna say
Donald Trump here because he doesn't believe that the results
are accurate or correct or if they have been rigged
in some way. Well, but but here's the thing. They
these organizations are kind are there really are speculating with
this because Donald Trump has never come out and fully
(41:06):
stated that he he won't concede if he loses. He
has made some statements that are you know, you could
take maybe in that context, but he's never said it.
There's a there's a quote here from the New York Times.
Um says Mr Trump, aiming to unnerve ms. Clinton even
indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their first
(41:28):
debate that he would absolutely support her if she won
in November, saying, quote, we're gonna have to see. We're
gonna have to see what happens. We're gonna have to see.
So I mean that right there, that quote is it
doesn't mean anything, right, just saying we're going to have
to see what happens over and over. Sure that wasn't
a quote from the movie Taxi Driver. But did that
(41:50):
sound like DeNiro? I don't know. I'm sorry if something
happened to it. We also know we have to consider
that if you're running for president, uh, when it's now
it's like down to the wire, you don't want to
put something out in the eco system of ideas that
(42:11):
acknowledges there's a possibility that you would lose. Right, it's
not a good position. I don't know why I got
a little Italian that it's position. I would just say
that we have seen this in our lifetimes where a
candidate decided not to concede immediately, do you guys. You
guys probably remember the Bush George W. Bush and al
Gore in two thousand with the hanging Chad's and everything
(42:34):
in Florida and all all that stuff, where it was
so close, neither candidate would concede. So it continued and
continued and continued along till you got to the other
processes where it went to the Supreme Court, it went
to the House of Representatives. So it's just, you know,
we have another potential situation like that here, um, and
(42:54):
if one candidate just decides not to concede, then who
knows what happens. We'll we'll find out, right, We'll see,
we'll have to see it now. It's also time, while
we're waiting on the results there, to move on to
theories espoused by Donald Trump. But first a word from
our sponsor, and we're back and it's time to explore
(43:21):
I think in detail the stuff we alluded to earlier,
the birther movement. So the concept is essentially like you
said that President Barack Obama was born not in Hawaii
but in Kenya and was a secret Muslim. Uh. There
are statements regarding that where they were presented. Someone is hearsay.
(43:45):
Donald Trump, in an earlier debate, had said that he
considered it a victory because he asked, he wanted to
see this birth certificate, and he did get the birth certificate,
so he considers it. Uh, good move, the right thing
to do. Um. But that birth certificate, it wasn't the
long form, was it. Guy. Uh. I'll read a quote
(44:07):
that he told radio host Laura Ingram in two thousand eleven.
He said, he kind of give a birth certificate referring
to a Barack Obama. He doesn't have a birth certificate,
or if he does, there's something on that certificate that's
very bad for him. Now, someone told me and I
have no idea whether this is bad for him or not.
But perhaps it would be that where it says religion,
it might have Muslim, and if you're a Muslim, you
(44:27):
don't change your religion, by the way. But somebody said
maybe that's the reason he doesn't want to show it.
I don't think so. I just don't think he has
a birth certificate, and everybody has a birth certificate. So
this what he's what he's doing here is he he
did acknowledge that people had the secret Muslim thing, but
he said he doesn't personally believe in that, but he
(44:49):
is he is suggesting. He's not outright saying he's he's
suggesting that there's something there and he wants to have proof.
So this is, as an old pointed out, one of
the things that really launched him, um because he was
known and and lauded as a businessman before, but was
(45:09):
always a controversial figure. Right. People thought he was larger
than life, people in other countries saw him as a
stereotype of America, you know. Uh so he had at
different times he had gone on Twitter famously and said
stuff like, um, poles are starting to look really bad
(45:30):
for Obama. Looks like left to start a war, major
conflict to win. Don't put it past him. Kind of
a wag the dog situation and the the idea about
the birthard movement has followed him to the current election.
But it seems like when he said, well, this is
what I did. I asked for the birth certificate and
(45:51):
received it, it seems like they have quelled that or
moved on to another controversy because things are popping up
left and right. Maybe it's poor choice of words, or
maybe it's apt, but there are just so many controversies
it's difficult to keep track of. Uh. He also alleges
that former Supreme Court Justice Scalia was murdered. Uh. And
(46:15):
when when I say alleges, he's just raising suspicions. And
this is something that a lot of people thought about.
You know, you guys, we we all talked about this
off air when Scalia passed away. So yeah, anytime the
circumstances surrounding a death of a highly important person like
Justice Scalia, Uh, when the circumstances are a bit strange,
(46:39):
even just kind of off being at a private hunting
what is it, a private hunting club in the middle
of nowhere, I mean, it's just it raises questions, and
that's the kind of thing that Donald Trump is doing.
I think in general, listen, man, when you have when
you go, when you hunt people on your private island,
you know someone's gonna get hurt. Yeah, just usually it's
(47:03):
the people that you've I was, I was gonna say,
captured the poor people. Uh yeah, iced tea yea from
surviving the game or I mean, I think as long
as you are hunting for sustenance, you know, if you're
hunting for trophies, that's weird, you know, but hunt if
(47:23):
you if you eat what you're hunting. Oh boy, we
already did a canibalism episode this gentleman. I'm kidding and
have never knowingly consumed human flesh. But if you want
to hear Donald Trump's thoughts about anton Scalia, you can
go to I Think is It Mike Savages show that
he went on and he talked about this stuff. So
I think he may have also either mentioned or appeared
(47:46):
on Alex Jones Info Wars. So here's the big one
that he said several times. They got a lot of
public attention, and I like to hear what you guys
think about this. Saying that the election is rigged. Remember
how we mentioned party officials in the GOP not being
on board with the Trump presidency and in many cases
(48:09):
going against the wishes of the Republican voting population. They
were livid when they heard about this. So state level
secretaries in the Republican Party would say things like, well,
just give us proof that you're saying this is rigged.
Give us proof, let us know how we can improve
(48:30):
the system instead of coming out and making allegations. Uh.
He also said that there could be voter fraud occurring, right, Yes,
he said that the Clinton campaign is planning massive voter
fraud in quote certain areas. Um. And he's also calling
on his supporters in a lot of yeah, these areas
(48:52):
to kind of function as vigilantes in a way, like
monitor the election at polling places, which is illegal depending
on how they go. Yeah, and I mean this is
a This is another thing about this candidate is his
A lot of his language is very divisive in that
way where he can kind of backtrack and say, well,
I didn't exactly say that. I said, you know, keep
an eye out, but I didn't say go to the
(49:15):
polling places. You know. It's very you know, if it
can be interpreted as marching orders for his followers. But
then you can kind of go back and say, well,
now I didn't exactly say that thing. It's up to
them how just they choose to interpret the things that
I say, you know. Um, so that's something that's pretty
unique about this particular candidate that we haven't really seen
(49:37):
another presidential candidate. That's true. And not to make this
too much about the second Clinton campaign, but he did
raise he did raise, uh, pretty pretty valid points about
corruption in the d n C with the handling of
the Bernie Sanders versus Clinton divide amongst the left leaning vote,
(50:00):
and uh, the role of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, which did
we discuss this in an earlier podcast we sleep saving
it for next week? No, we we we hit Debbie
Wasserman Schultz pretty hard right before the stuff really hit
the fan. Well, she will be making return appearance next
week in our Clinton episode, So everyone who wants to
tune in for that please do so. Also, the guy's
(50:27):
got a point when it comes to electronic voting machines, right,
I mean, it's been seen in the past. There are
several instances where some of the older models will be
purchased by someone tinkered with in a very short amount
of time and showing that yes, you can absolutely rig
this machine. If you are alone with it for you know,
a couple of hours, you can set it up to
(50:49):
spit out whatever results you want. And if you're interested
in hearing some more about the facts fiction controversy surrounding
voting machines, please check out resnap the sort of tech
stuff with our buddy Jonathan Strickland and I, where we
discuss the history of voting machines, the problems with voting machines,
(51:10):
and the ease with which results are skewed. Now you know,
the one good thing is that voting machines aren't used
across the United States in every county in every state. However,
there are using a lot of places, specifically into Cab County,
where I am so yeha. That being said, though, there
(51:30):
they are decentralized to the point where they're not on
some sort of network where you know, a single um
god view exists where you could tamper with you know
them in bulk. It would require an individual to do
something to tamper with a single machine. So I mean
the logistics to me of really legitimately quote unquote rigging
(51:56):
an election. It really strikes me as a bit of
a stretch. That's just me. I hear you, I see
what you're saying. And you know, most Americans nowadays have
less and less faith in this sort of system. Right,
you learn about the electoral college, which is essentially a
way of ensuring well preventing mobable, but also a way
(52:19):
of creating an opportunity for parties to ignore the people. Right.
It's also a way of kind of neutering the voter
as an individual, you know, I mean, like as far
as taking away what we perceive as being this right
one vote, you know, one individual, one vote, but it's
really treated much more in like blocks, you know, right,
(52:41):
and do do you know it calls into a question
the the system. I'm going to do a crass comparison here.
So without questioning the system, especially in era where a
lot of people don't care for either candidate, particularly with that,
without seching the system, we're not as a nation making
(53:03):
the progress we could make, because otherwise we're like people
choosing between like should I eat these nails or should
I eat uh this this these glass shards and no
one's like, hey, maybe we shouldn't eat either, Maybe we
should eat something that's you know, food. Uh. So, well,
I was watching pundits discuss the fact that Donald Trump
(53:23):
is calling into question the system of our democracy itself
and how we elect officials, and he was defending it
in a way that you would defend the flag or
maybe the national anthem standing up in the national anthem.
How how people get so emotionally distraught when something like
that is called into question And I really see that, man,
(53:45):
I see, I see that that that is a huge issue.
If we can't even critically think about something. Should there
be um coalition governments like the way some European nations
handle it, you know where they say, okay, third three
of people voted for party A, so that has to
be a representative of that voted for B, you know,
(54:06):
et cetera. Until you hit I do not know the answer.
And we have just touched on some of the theory
surrounding this candidate. And again to emphasize, uh, the GOP officials, Congress, folks, governors,
so on, large factions of them do not support this candidate,
(54:29):
despite the fact that many of the voters they are
representing have chosen this guy, regardless of what you think
that is. That is a fact. Is this a case
of the people versus their own party, or the party
versus their own people. The controversy surrounding both of these
candidates indicates a higher chance than usual of third parties
garnering more votes, specifically of course Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate,
(54:53):
and the Green Party candidate Jill Stein as of right now,
which could change you know next week. UH At five
thirty eight the election forecast and statistics that run by
Nate Silver. You can see that there they're predicting UM
pretty high, pretty high numbers as far as UM polling goes.
(55:19):
But these numbers can these numbers can change pretty rapidly.
But Nate Silver has earned a reputation for having less
inaccurate predictions. He's got the good algorithms, the best algorithms.
Nate Silver, right, unbelievable. You won't believe his algorithms. UH.
But we hope that you have appreciated this episode, and
(55:44):
we hope that you will tune in for our next
episode UH even closer to the election, wherein we cover
the facts, fiction, and controversy surrounding UH. The other candidate
or the other large candidates. Uh. Democratic nomination holder Hillary
Rodham Clinton. I wanted to talk to you guys really
(56:05):
fast before we completely close and get to the skidooche
moment that we've all been waiting for. Uh. How how
do you guys think media coverage has played a role
in in this election and shaping how the candidates are
Because it occurs to me that if you want to
rig an election, rather than you know, going through and
(56:28):
actually physically rigging the electronic voting machines by doing all
kinds of huge amounts of new voters coming in with
the registrations, all of the effort that takes, couldn't you
just somewhat control how the media covers your candidates. And
I think that's exactly what Donald Trump is arguing. I
(56:48):
think when he says that the the election is being rigged,
I mean, he's so vague and the things that he says,
but I think largely what he's planting to is the
fact that the media is to us into the media
has turned on him. It seems like, in his opinion,
they have gone from just reporting every inflammatory thing that
(57:11):
he does or says to covering allegations that in his
mind have not been proven, and he feels as though
that is inherently bias in my opinion the way it
seems from the way he's describing it, and is an
attack directly on his candidacy that maybe has been manipulated
(57:36):
orchestrated in some way by his opponent, and in his mind,
as it seems, there is some collusion going on between
his opponent, Hillary Clinton and the quote unquote liberal media.
The problem there, to me, though, is big part of
Donald Trump's meteoric rise has been the fact that he billions.
(58:01):
I want to say, there's a figure that I saw
in free advertising just by going on shows, just by
going on shows being a ratings machine, you know, like
someone that that these networks knew that if they did
stories on him or whatever new thing he said, people
(58:22):
were gonna click on it, People were gonna watch it,
people were going to tune him because they wanted to
see where it was gonna go, because it is so unprecedented.
So to me, I think it's sort of does not
ring true, and it's sort of a hollow argument to say, oh, well,
now the media is turning on me. You know, the
very media that raised me up to my position of
prominence here is now my enemy. Yeah, I think you know,
(58:48):
there's another thing here that people don't talk about as
much as they should, which is that voter fraud, often
presented as a boogeyman in recent times for various people,
various agendas, doesn't seem to happen as easily as people
may imagine. That'd be like voting multiple times, dead people
(59:12):
voting this this kind of voter for aud right and
voting has been super dirty in American history for for
a long time. So is it possible that elections are corrupt? Certainly? Oh, certainly,
but to what degree and via what means? We'd like
to hear your thoughts on the nature of the political system.
(59:36):
I would like to hear any other conspiracy theories that
you think your fellow listeners should know. And speaking of
fellow listeners, it's that time again shout at conners. Before
we get into the shout outs, I want to thank
everyone for tuning in to our recent shout out Corners Skidoos.
(59:56):
The episode, Um, you know, a lot of people look
at the thos is being kind of like a throwaway
clip show type episode, and we went to a lot
of trouble to make sure that it wasn't and uh,
the listeners seem to enjoy it, and the numbers reflected that.
So we want to thank you guys for tuning in.
Our first correspondence comes from Matthew from quote Foggy London
Town unquote. He sent us a long thought out response
(01:00:19):
about our great game episode. That's going way back there, Matthew. Um,
but we're gonna boil it down to a few questions
that he posed to us. He said, why can't the
American government and their counterparts in Moscow ever get along
and work together like they had done with the success
of I s S, the International Space Station and joint
(01:00:40):
space programs who made the decision to dislike Russia now
and painted as the evil boogeyman again? Is it good
for business for both competing sides to be at loggerheads
to fund this huge military industrial complex. Interesting to have that, Uh,
the opposing force that you must build up arms against, Matthew,
(01:01:01):
that's a fascinating idea. Thank you, Matthew. Those are definitely
some questions that we're going to continue to think about,
and you know, we'll see if it inspires us to
look into it. More in the future, perhaps an update
on the modern group game. But yeah, excellent questions. Who's next?
Vicky in Ohio send us an email with a short
(01:01:21):
list of possible topics, including cern shape shifting, astral projection,
ley lines, and Stromman theory. I would love to cover
shape shifting, astral projections, and lay lines. Yeah, I think
we all this caters to a lot of our individual favorites.
Astral projection is that going out of your body in
(01:01:44):
a trance. Is that specific projects stargate? Okay, there's a
bit of a difference perhaps between remote viewing and astral projection.
People who believe in astro projection believe that some intangible
warm of the person, the spirit or the soul of consciousness. Yeah,
escapes and you can see various artistic interpretations. People often
(01:02:07):
described like a small, uh tendril of sorts connecting them
to their physical body. It's interesting. So yeah, if you
want to hear more about any of those, you wanted
to do an an episode right to us and let
us know. And one more, we have Sharad in North Carolina.
I hope I am pronouncing your name correctly, uh, wrote
in to ask us and the following things. During this
(01:02:31):
election cycle, we've had several instances of oh, here's the
finger quote effect, how is it? Thank you? Leaked documents
and emails, and it seems as if most people are
more interested in what they say instead of where they
came from. Could there be a conspiracy going on that's
meant to make us more comfortable with hacking? Is this
campaign season all just one massive cover up leading us
(01:02:53):
all into an age of non existent privacy? It's a
nice set up for next week. It's BEAUTI full thank
you sir. That is like just sending us right over
the cliff end of the next one, like did privacy
ever exist? What is the nature of privacy? The concept
of privacy really is um much more recent than we
(01:03:16):
would like to pretend at times. And also we're facing
maybe not the extinction of privacy, just growing inequality of privacy.
I submit to you that privacy will be one of
the new currencies or status symbols of the coming age.
So we hope you enjoyed this at least in some
dark way. Uh, this episode on Donald Trump, and next
(01:03:37):
week we're gonna get into, like we said, Hillary Clinton,
If you have any thoughts on anything that we've talked about.
Please find us on Facebook or Twitter. We are conspiracy
Stuff on both of those. You can find us on
Instagram now conspiracy Stuff Show. If you don't already watch
our videos on YouTube, we spend a lot of time
(01:03:58):
on them. We like them a lot, we think he
will too, Head on over to YouTube dot com slash
conspiracy Stuff. And if you don't want to do any
of those things and you just want to talk to
us or send us a suggestion, because our best ideas
always come from you, write us an email. We are
conspiracy at how stuff Works dot com.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Show Links
RSSStoreAboutLive ShowsPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.