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The Russia Investigation Investigation · Conspiracy! The Show

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: W Insurance did true the troth I'm a check out.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Both insurance gets the audis. Hey, everybody, welcome to Conspiracy
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: The Show. I am Adam Todd Brown. Who are you?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Olivia Heidar.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We are your guests, and we apologize in advance for
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: this episode.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: We are your guests.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: You know I said that last week too and had
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to edit it out. What is my problem?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Well, for what they can't edit it out? This is
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: that's that's gold.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: We are. We are now because last week I did
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: cut it when I said we are your guests. We
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: are your hosts. We are and you're you know what,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: if you're listening to this, you're welcoming us into your home.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: This is what I'm saying into your vehicle, right into
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: your AirPod pros. So we are your guests.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Right, We're your guests. Don't worry. I'll take off my
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: shoes before I come in.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Hey, Olivia, how's it going. Have you been since we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: recorded last.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I'll be good. I'm been good. Life is kind of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: like a raging river. It's kind of like a crossfire hurricane,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: you might say.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: You could say that sometimes I feel like I was
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: born in a crossfire.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. I mean, if only there was a song
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: about something like that. But you know, I'm doing my best,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: keeping my head above water, barely. Very excited. I've got
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a big double feature today at the movies. Very excited.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Oh what's happened?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be a long one. There's one art theater
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: within thirty miles of me double feature, you know, like,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I gotta get them as many in it at what times? Again?
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to see Drive My Car where you
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Ska Hamaguchi's new film that looks fantastic is supposed to
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: be great, but it is three hours long, literally, like exactly.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Then I'm gonna go see The Worst Person in the World,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: which I have heard nothing but amazing things about and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: is like over two hours long. So it's gonna be
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a hefty day at the art theater for me.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be a day.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know I'm looking forward to it.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Well, that sounds like fun, but first we have some
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: fun of our own to get to.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so much fun.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: We had that seamless segue a while back where we
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: were talking about a crossfire hurricane. That's because that is
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the FBI's code name for the Russia investigation into whether
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the twenty
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: sixteen election.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: You know what, I am just so glad to be
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: talking about the twenty sixteen election again. I just have
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: not gotten enough of talking about that election. I just
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: don't think it's discussed enough.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I'm still writing twenty twenty on all my fraud claims,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: you know, and I always forget that I can put
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen on it too, because like it's all rigged,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: you know, exactly. We're not exactly talking about the Russia investigation.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that a little bit. But
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: what we're here to talk about today is the Russia
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: investigation investigation which I think people know a little less about.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Everyone knows the Libs and their friends in the deep
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: state launched a probe into Trump and his staff, looking
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: for evidence that they colluded with Russia. What got a
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: whole lot less attention is that right before the twenty
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: twenty election, Attorney General William Barr launched an investigation into
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the Democrats investigation and love that. That's what we're talking
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: about today. What's your stance on the Russia investigation? Looking
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: back on.
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  Speaker 1: It, I mean looking back on it, I don't know, man, Like,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: it's fucking weird. I got so tired of hearing about it.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: But also I'm like, well, you know, if it was happening,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: then that's bad. But also every other aspect of our
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: democracy is failing, and so I don't see how this
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: is especially egregious, honestly, and I feel pretty good about this.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: It's been six years. I don't really have very many
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: strong feelings about the Russia investigation anymore.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, looking back, it really has some doomsday cult qualities
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to it. Yeah, where there were all these moments where
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: it's like, uh oh, some Russia investigation stuff is dropping today,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: and it's like fin finally Trump is going to prison,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and it's like now it just turns out Michael Cohen
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: lied about something and it's going to go to jail
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: for a while, and it's like, well, I don't really
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: care about that that much, right, I.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Like, yeah, I consider it among the tide of liberal
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and centrist and some leftist panic and desperation about the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Trump presidency and just the feeling of grasping at anything
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: that we could possibly find that could possibly damage this
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: man's presidential administration, which I think is good. I mean
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: he was a bad president.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a bad president. And I'm certainly not here
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: to go to bat for team Trump. Like we're going
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: to get into the Republican's version of this investigation. Yeah, mostly.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing, both of them seem in reprospect
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and currently with this Republican one that's running, like it's
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: just not that interesting. It would be one thing if
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: at any point, like if the Muller report came out
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and was like Trump did this and we can prove
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: it and he committed a crime, then I'd be like
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: I'm listening. Yeah, But the conclusion of the Muller report
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: was like, yeah, we think Trump did some stuff and
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: we think his campaignnew, but we can't prove it. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: it's like, well I can't either. That was your job.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Like that The whole Muller thing it like talk about
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: so looking back is just so embarrassing, and uh, just
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: like just embarrassing. That's the only thing I think of it.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Like the way that Democrats, especially like the mainstream Democrats,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: treated Robert Muller, a man who almost single handedly lost
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton the twenty sixteen election.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Like well was it was it? Hammer Comy oh, Komy.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Regardless, Muller, he's Komy also, But Mueller is there. These
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: are people who are bad people. They work for the FBI,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: they're evilmen, and they're being hailed as champions of fucking
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: democracy by people who should fucking know better. And that's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: just that that's just a running theme of liberal discourse
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: throughout the Trump administration. It's it's constantly enemy of my
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: enemy or whatever, but not thinking about, well, maybe this
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: enemy doesn't have like your best interests and isn't really
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: looking for the same thing. Muller was looking to like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: clear himself and clear comy, like he was looking to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: like make sure that, you know, everything kind of stayed normal.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: He wasn't looking to overturn the apple cart. And that's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: what needed to happen, Like we needed something drastic in
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: order to make any sort of dent in Trump's armor,
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  Speaker 1: and that is just something that Democrats are still incapable
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of doing, even after he lost the election.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and in this case, it's kind of the same thing,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: like talk to me when this turns into Hillary Clinton
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: being indicted or even just this probe saying that the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: spying in question was actually criminal spying. Because even that
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: hasn't been said yet, but we'll get into it. We
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: should give people some background on the Russian investigation because
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: it does matter to this story. Right July twenty sixteen,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: the FBI called this program operation Crossfire Hurricane, which they
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: explained by saying, it is a phrase from the opening
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: line of a Rolling Stone song. And it's like, yes,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we all know that, I is the operation called Crossfire Hurricane.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: What I found interesting was that the predecessor investigation was
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: code named crossfire Typhoon.
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  Speaker 2: And I just did that come from?
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  Speaker 1: Right, That's what I'm saying. Why was that the name?
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I don't understand? And then it got upgraded to hurricane.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: That person also thought it was a Stone's reference. Someone
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: was like, no, no, it's hurricane.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I was born hit a crossfired typhoon.
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  Speaker 2: Typhoon? What version are you listening to?
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: B sides?
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  Speaker 2: And this was an investigation meant to determine whether individuals
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: associated with Trump's presidential campaign were coordinating wittingly or unwittingly
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  Speaker 2: with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the twenty
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  Speaker 2: sixteen US presidential election, and it seems like they were
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to some extent.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that feels like just an objective fact
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  Speaker 1: of reality.
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  Speaker 2: It all started because a Trump staffer named George Papadopoulos
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  Speaker 2: took a trip to Rome in March twenty sixteen to
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: meet with officials at a college called Link Campus University.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: He meets a Maltese professor there named Joseph Mifsud, who,
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  Speaker 2: upon learning that Papadopoulos works for Trump, informs him that
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the Russian government has thousands of emails that could be
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: politically damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign. And a
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: couple months later, Papadopoulos has drinks with Alexander Downer, the
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Australian High Commissioner to Britain. I don't think I needed
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: to tell anyone that.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Of course, everybody knows how all of them. Yeah, all
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: of Australian's High commissioners. We know them by name when
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: it's taught in school.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in Australian history class.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: He lives up to his last name Downer, and immediately
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: reports this drunken fashion to the appropriate authorities, except just joking.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: It was not immediately. They sat on this information until July,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: after Wiki Leaks released a bunch of DNC emails about
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: cheese pizza and walnut sauce.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Uh, I'm sorry they released a bunch of DNC emails
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: about a secret pedophile ring under a pizza shop.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: That's what you mean, right, Clearly one of us has
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: dug into the details of that story a little more.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Cheese pizza means child porn and walnut sauce. I forgot
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: what that is supposed to be, dude.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: How the hell am I ever supposed to remember the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: code words? I just know the basics.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I don't remember what wall I don't think
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna look up at.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Walnuts, So like jizz, I don't know.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, go ahead run how to communicate with pedophiles
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: through your Google browsers.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: At home, everybody, and uh, pizzagate code words?
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: That is in Australia finally told the US about what
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Papadopolis said. Specifically, they told the CIA. CIA director John Brennan,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: who I'm sure is a great guy.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Who fuckings absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Convened a meeting of c I, A, N s A,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and FBI officials, and this is when the FBI officially
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: started their investigation. Because the CIA doesn't have jurisdiction to
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: spy on American citizens.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Technically, wink, and also.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: The FBI, Man, when are you gonna learn that? When
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: the CIA comes to you and goes, boy, do we
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: have some information for you that we would like you
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: to share with the public, you gotta be like, is this.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: One of those tricks? Yeah?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Is this one of thos? Is this all fake?
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Is this it's Lucy with the football man?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: And they're like, nah, man, P tape, check it out
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: like the P tape. Eventually that was discredited.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: It's so funny because all of these of the organizations
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: are so so evil, just breathtaking lee evil, and yet
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the FBI always comes off like they're like idiot younger
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: brother who doesn't have it, who just is like, I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: don't know, guy, I just want to hang with you
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: guys like I could be an information gathering service too,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Like what what leads do you have? Okay, I'll go
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: along with that.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I went to the FBI exhibit at the Reagan Library.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, long ago.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I think I mentioned this on the pod at one point,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: But in that exhibit, they have a bunch of office
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: doors that are set up to look like what the
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: original FBI offices would have looked like, like old timy doors,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Like you can you can picture it like you can
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: picture It's got the glass with the wires run course,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: of course, and it had like all these different divisions
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: had like homicide and like all of this, and then
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: one of them said cyber crimes. It's like, oh, it's
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: ye old cyber crimes door. Okay, that's what the cyber
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: crime store looked like in the nineteen thirties.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Non for hackers on DARPAET or whatever.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: So this thing about the FBI starting this investigation because
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: of the Papadopoulos information is a big point of contention.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: That's the FBI swears that's why they did it. Trump's
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: side claims they did it because of the Steel dossier,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: speaking of being handed questionable information and running with it BuzzFeed.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: The Steele dossier has mostly been discredited by this point,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: especially the really cool part, which was Russia had a
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: tape of Trump like getting pissed on or having course,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: and it turned out that probably isn't true.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Well, we don't know. Tom Arnold is still hunting for it,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: so it's true. By the way, I still haven't forgiven
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you for making me watch that show. This is the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: worst thing we've watched.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I'm firing off emails every day to Tom Arnold trying
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to get a new season.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, yeah, meanwhile, he just doesn't give a shit about
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the world because the guy he hated is out of office.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, everything's fine, man, Joe Biden's back in office.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden, he's a good guy. We're definitely not about
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to go to war with Russia.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: No today, and we're not gonna take the Neo Nazis
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: side in that war at.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: All, as we as we record this podcast, we're not
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: going to war. I'm sure it's fine.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's gotta happen today because it's Tuesday two.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And there you go. Well, I mean, look, is not a.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Better day for World War three to start except three
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: thirty three thirty three.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: That's the thing. Yeah, we got a wait eleven years,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: that's when the water Wars begin. Uh. But no, Russia
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: just evaded Ukraine, you know that, right? Oh yes, yeah,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure that we were on
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the same page about because I know it's earlier for you.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: That was what I woke up to you.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Oh great, yeah, yeah, good times soak in Russia. Yeah.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: It later comes to light that the FBI didn't become
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: aware of the Steele dossier until September, which was a
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: few months after the investigation was launched. There was some
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: fallout from the Steele dossier fiasco. We'll get to it later.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: The FBI was eventually replaced in their investigation by the
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Mueller Probe, which picked up the investigation after Trump fired
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: James Comy. I believe yes, that's when Muller picked it
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: up and brought it to its hair raising conclusion, which was, yeah,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: some people did some stuff, but we can't prove it,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: so enjoy your democracy. Fuck face.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Basically, that's the theme of the last decade.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And in December twenty nineteen, a review of the
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Russia investigation done by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horwitz
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: did not find political bias in the FBI's decision to
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: launch the investigation, but it did find that the FBI
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: made seventeen errors or omissions in a foreign intelligence surveillance
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: court warrant application for surveillance on Trump aid Carter Page.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe that the Federal Bureau of Investigation of
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: America fudged warrants.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I know this is a shocking claim to make about
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the FBA. God, like, what this is? They are they
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: spying on black leftists? No? Probably not. No, SINCEBI sixties
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: or seventies or eighties or nineties, or like two thousands
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: or twenty tens.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It didn't disappear a bunch of ferguson activists. No,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the FBI has always been on the side of civil rights.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: We know that. They've always that was the They've always
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: been involved in the civil rights movement.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I texted you a picture of that from the
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: FBI exhibit. We have always been interested civil rights. Yeah
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: you have, you sure have so. Yeah, if the people
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: at home can believe it, I know you're probably all
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: clutching your pearls. But the FBI cut some corners in
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: securing this warrant to spy on Carter Page, which knock
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: me over with a feather who. So in January twenty twenty,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: the Department of Justice declared two of those warrants invalid,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: and a federal judge said the surveillance on Page lacked
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: a legal basis. So, on account of all those concerns,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: William Barr's bitch ass appoints Connecticut US Attorney John Durham
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: as a special counsel to investigate the investigators behind the
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Russia investigation. I'm pretty sure that's a quote from William
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Barr's statement about this.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: First of all, William Barr is absolutely a bitch ass,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and like that is just that's the kind of Trump
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: logic that you just don't get. Like Biden sucks in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: his own particular way. He's gonna get this all killed
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: by going to war, but you don't have him investigating
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: an investigation, which is just the kind of shit that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that's just that Trump insecurity all over the fucking place.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It's so good.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: This feels petty, absolutely, and like once you dig into
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the details, so does the first Russia investigation a little bit,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: but not to this degree. No, So William Barr appoints
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: John Durham to head up this investigation that initially happened
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: secretly in October twenty twenty, but he was given special
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: council status in December twenty twenty, meaning he couldn't be
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: easily fired when the Biden administration took over. And that's
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: when we officially found out about this new investigation. For
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: the first few months, there weren't a ton of notable
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: developments Durham did at one point strike a plea deal
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: with Kevin Klein's smith and FBI lawyer who admitted to
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: doctoring an email from the CIA when the Bureau was
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: applying for the warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: And they did do this, and again it sounds like
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: classic FBI shenanigans. What they did is when they applied
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: for this warrant, they altered this email from the CIA
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: because the email revealed that Carter Page had already discussed
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: a bunch of his Russia dealings with the CIA, which, whoops,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Gonna be honest, that makes them seem a whole lot
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: less suspicious. If you're going to the CIA and being like, hey,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: listen to what these fucking Ruskies are trying to do,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: right like that, that I think legitimately would give you
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: less of a legal basis absolutely to spy on Carter Page. Ah,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: the FBI did a bad thing here, No.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Way, they did a bad, bad thing.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: But also that information came about as a result of
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: that Michael Orwitz investigation in twenty nineteen. Durham was just
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: there to handle the plea deal by the time it
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: all happened, so even that isn't coming from this John
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Durham investigation. The first actual indictment to come from the
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Durham investigation involved a cyber security lawyer named Michael Sussman.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: The charge drum roll, please, one Count of Lyne to
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: the FBI.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And you know, you should have seen this coming because
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that guy, like it's right in the name. He's a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: sus Man. He's very sus.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: You sure is. You can't spell Sussman without suss.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And man, Yeah, there you go.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. This reminds me of what would happen during the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: initial Russia investigation. There would be this big drop. There
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: would be like Muller would have a countdown clock on
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: his website and the new Russia Investigation drop would be coming.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: That normally meant the government was up to something else,
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: completely insane, that we should have been paying more attention to.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Like I remember one time when a bunch of mostly
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: useless indictments came down in the Russia investigation. The government
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: was also in front of Congress lobbying to expand the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Act that allows us to just kind of conduct war
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: in the Middle East freely without any oversight. We wanted
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: to expand that to Africa. And oh, we were in
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: front of Congress lobbying for that. At the same time
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: these Russia investigation indictments came down, and it's like that
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: other thing sounds a little more important, honestly, is it?
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Is it? But it didn't happen. And now we'll never
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: go to war in Africa.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not. No, well, I mean we'll be too busy
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: unless again, it's like World War two and there's just
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a random African front that like no one really knows
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: why we're there.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: So yeah, these indictments would come down in the Russia
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: investigation and it was like, well, that's cool, but also
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: when are we going to get the Trump's gonna hit
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: someone important? And like Michael Flynn that was a good one,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: but that one was so blatant, like he was doing
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: QAnon salutes on Instagram and shit, it's like, obviously this
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: guy's a.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Fun and say that guy is kind of stupid.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds like a dumb.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Ass, but also like it was also taking up all
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of the air that could have been spent on the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: other shit that Trump is doing, yes during his presidency
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that you could impeach him for theoretically, right, Like that's
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the problem is it's taking all the focus has now
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: been on this Russia thing that is nebulous at best,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: instead of actual concrete actions that were being taken that
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: we know were being taken.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Republicans were right when they said it was a distraction.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: They just weren't right in the way they thought, right exactly,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Like you're kind of lucky that people were just focusing
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: on Russia, right, Like, yeah, it's the same.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: This is again, I've said this before this podcast. Republicans
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: are so fucking stupid, just inherently. I'm sorry, No, I'm
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: not sorry to any Republican listeners. You're a fucking idiot.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: But like, it's just this, it's this worldview where like
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: if they wanted to fucking impeach Biden, then they could,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Like there's a bunch of shit that he's done that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you could probably impeach him for. But it's not that
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: stuff that they're going after. It's this like nebulous hunter
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Biden laptop thing that they're chasing after. Like it's just
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: it's this chronic thing where and we're just never gonna
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: have this is my feeling. We're never going to have
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: a Republican president impeached again. At least to the point
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of getting removed from office. That is just never going
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to happen to a Republican president ever again, because Republicans
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: will never ever ever bend on that right. As if
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a Democratic president gets impeached, like if Biden got impeached,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: there would be Democrats who would go along with it
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: because it would probably be the right thing to do,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and that would remove him from office. But you'll just
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: that'll never happen. In the flip.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the thing about Biden and Ukraine, and I mean,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: we're sort of getting off track, but not really. We're
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: talking about Russia, and well there's not like, yeah, the
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: thing about Biden in Ukraine. We are to some extent,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: to a large extent, arming neo Nazis in Ukraine to
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: fight against Russia. And what I don't think people understand this.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, and this is just a thing I read.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's one hundred percent accurate, but
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: essentially Putin is banking on Joe Biden being on the
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: wrong side of history here. Yeah, like he's banking on
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: at some point people going, wait, you're fighting with the Nazis,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: and that makes what's happening in Ukraine awfully uncomfortable because
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure were the good guys.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Well, not only I think the problem is again whatever
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: fuck this other shit, but like I'm sorry, I woke
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: up and the first thing that I read was that
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Russia invaded Eastern ukraated. So it's kind of been the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: only thing that's on my mind because if you remember,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: like during that similar event that happened back in like
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, like that was fully livestream. You
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: could just watch that happen at like as it happened,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: and so I was like I was watching that, like
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I remember that shit, and like there are no good
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: guys in this situation, you know, like what Russia is
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: doing is awful and not right, and they're invading the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: sovereignty of another nation, and there are people who are resisting.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: That who are not neo Nazis.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I want to be yes, not everybody who is resisting
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Russian invasion in Ukraine is in the Nazi, but like
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: that is also a huge faction, and that just happens
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to be the kind of faction that the US loves
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to align with because they are cohesive in a way
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that leftist groups are never allowed to.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Be well, the government in general in Ukraine is kind
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: of fasci right exactly, Like it's not just that we're
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: arming these groups, it's that the government in general does
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: a lot of the things that we hate the fascist too, Like.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, taking a page from the American playbook, a
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: lot and as a lot of places are.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: And I get that, you know, Putin's a crazy maniac
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: and a monster, But if you want to see what's
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: happening in Ukraine from his point of view, imagine if
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: at some point Russia fomented coups in Canada and Mexico
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: and turn those into communist guys governments and then started
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: pressuring them to enter into a military alliance with Russia.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Would the United States stand for being surrounded by two
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Russian satellite countries or would we fight back? We have
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: a proven history of fighting back in a situation like that,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And that's what's happening in Russia. After the Soviet Union fell,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: we went in and started adding all these Soviet countries
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: to NATO, just like we said we wouldn't. And Pluton
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: has always been like, please just not Ukraine.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, and like I feel like Russia is just
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just been the country. It's it's always been.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Just because the Cold War ended, does it mean that
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Russia is not a massive superpower that could threaten us? Like, right,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: of course, it's always been that, but we have just
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: stopped thinking that way because we quote unquote won the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Cold War, and so we just think, oh, they're just
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: fucking with their own ship. We can do whatever we want,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: we can interfere with these nations that are on their border,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just going to come back and bite us,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: just like everything of the late twentieth century is coming
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: back to bite us. Yeah, I don't know, man, I
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Like I said, this whole thing has just got me
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: completely keyed up. I'm very anxious about everything that's happening
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: in the world.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure, this is like, this is very easily
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: could be the start of World War three.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: And when we say there's like no real good guys here,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: that's not us advocating for Putin. Putin's no, no two guys.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gay fuck off. I don't ever say that I'm
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: chilling for Putin. I will punch you in the nose.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: But that's that doesn't mean that in a situation like this,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: you're basically hearing the American government's version of events versus
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: the Russian government's version of events, and you gotta understand
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: they're both going to embellish little bit. Like absolutely when
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: you hear stuff about Kim Jong un. No, he's probably
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: not shooting people in the chest with ten rounds. Yes,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: his people are starving.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: But also it's not like I feel, well, let's talk
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: about Tangent on Tangent, but like, the whole Western image
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: of North Korea is so warped and so unrealistic.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: There's a very interesting documentary about that called The Propaganda Game.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've heard of that.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I cannot recommend enough. We should actually cover it on
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: this down. I completely forgot about that.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a huge bugbear for me. Is Western treatment
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: of North Korea, like it's it's wild. But also like
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Russia is, they are comparable to America in many ways,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: and we don't see them that way. Like we just
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: think that we are super special and unique and no
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: one else operates in the world like we do and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: where you know, whatever we do is right, and we're
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the only superpower, and that is not accurate. It's never
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: been accurate. And that kind of attitude invites someone like
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Putin to manipulate us into doing exactly what he wants,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: which is pick a fight with him, and then he
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: whoops our ass because we can't invade Russia. That just
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: is not going to happen.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: No, No, that's never.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Going to happen. Everyone who's done it has fucking died.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: So be a risky proposition, and the idea that Russia
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: could be tricking us into something, I feel like brings
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: us back to this Russia investigation thing for sure, because
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: it's really very possible that that's what happened here, right,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Like we were talking about Michael Sussman, just to here's
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: what I'm talking about in terms of like these indictments
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: always being kind of disappointing and unimportant. Right, even this
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: one indictment hinges on such questionable details. The main issue
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: is whether or not Susman told the FBI he was
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: working on behalf of the Clinton campaign. The indictment claims
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: he told the FBI he was acting independently, and this
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: special Counsel's opinion is that he was working on behalf
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: of the Clinton campaign and just lied to the FBI.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: And what you'll take note of is At no point
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: do they say what he did was illegal or spying
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: the act of having gathered this information and taking it
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: to the FBI in and of itself was not illegal. Right.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: That never comes up in this indictment. So here's the thing.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: I don't give a fuck, right. I would probably like
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: if you put the FBI in front of me and
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: they were like, are you Adam Todd Brown, I'd be like, no, no,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: I guarantee you. I panic immediately the FBI says a
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: single word to me, My only response is the word lawyer.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: That is that is how I have been taught through life.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not answering question uestions today. Yeah, and you just
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: back away slowly and get shot in the knee. Yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I will never never talk to the FBI. Oh my god.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: And the reason I said all the Russia stuff brings
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: us back to this Russia investigation investigation is because of
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: the second indictment that came down in this case, the
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Michael Sussman one, is just a matter of did he
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: tell the FBI he had clients or not?
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: It's just smoke.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: The next indictment came a few months later, in November
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. That's when Igor dan Chenko, the primary
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: researcher behind the Steele dossier, was arrested and charged with
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: five counts of lying to the FBI. He was interviewed
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: several times as part of the Mueller probe, which itself
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: debunked some of the Steel dossier claims. But again, in
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: one instance, it's alleged that he told the FBI he
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: never discussed the Steele dossier with this one PR executive
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: who had ties to the DNC, and then that PR
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: executive turned out to be the source when some of
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: the stuff in the Steele dossier reached the media, which,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: unless I'm reading it wrong, still doesn't like. It's still
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: not proof that he told them about it to someone
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: else and they told him, But either way, I don't care,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: and neither. The other four counts stemmed from his interactions
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: with this guy named Sergai Milian, who was the former
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: president of the Russian American Chamber Commerce, and in that
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: case he told the FBI he received a call in
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: late July from an anonymous Russian male who he guessed Milan,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: But then the Durham investigation found an email that's worded
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: in a way that suggests that phone call never happened.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Good luck live in this scandal down global sex trafficking elites, Like,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I don't this is so again, if this was them
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: saying what he did was illegal, right, like what igor
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: dan Schenko did was illegal, then yes, like his gathering
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: of the Steele dossier information was that illegal.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: The problem is no one like the people investigating and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: the people who like you know, started the bar and them,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: they don't want to say that it's anything that they're doing.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Is these people are doing is illegal because they want
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: to be able to keep doing it.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you just don't be able to do it, right.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: So they're like insinuating that it's bad and that it
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be done, but they never say it's illegal because
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: they don't want someone to say that what they're doing
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: is illegal. It's just this whole again. It's so petty
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and it's no wonder that this story, this second investigation,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: has not made any impact because it was started in
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: fucking twenty twenty. I wonder what else was going on
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty that have people's attention. Yeah, like nothing
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: like there's just unless you have some fucking rock solid evidence,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: nothing is gonna pierce the COVID veil, like not for
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: a while. When it comes to this shit. The only
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: thing that's gonna do it is war with Russia.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: And I think people on the left and Democrats, liberals,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I think those are all kind of three different groups.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: But oh yeah, I think there is some element among
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: all those groups that needs to understand that the Russia
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: investigation could have been that same thing, where it's Russia
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: approaching someone with something they know is mostly fake in
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: the hopes that that person will spread it and be discredited.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: And it seems like that's what happened to Hillary Clinton,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: right Steele dossier information that Igor Danchenko collects, he gives
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: it to Steel. It was his name, Christopher Steele. I
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: think I have no idea what this is.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Steel.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: It's a man of steel, and he compiles it and
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: gives it to the Clinton campaign. And the Clinton campaign
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: is the source for a lot of the information that
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: leaks from the Steele dossier to the media. So that
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: could be your Russian influence right there.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the whole.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Thing that's putin's He's a fucking spy, that's what he is.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: That's where he comes from.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: And not just that, but that's what Russia does. Right
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: if you read like Russia is not that closed off
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: from the world that you can't read some of their
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: military stuff and their whole like they don't have the
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: money to fight actual wars where they're going in and
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: like they can invade Ukraine, that's like a trip to
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: the store, right, They're not going to invade the United States.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: They don't need to. They might set up dueling Black
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Lives Matter protests in your town and then send someone
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: to throw a Molotov cocktail into the crowd.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Well, this is the whole thing, like I mean,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and that's probably you know, the election tampering thing, like
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: there's you know that probably wasn't like actually trying to
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: sway the election. It's just freaking people out. And people
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: were already freaked out because Trump was very popular, and
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: so it was just they there was just a very
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: clear opportunity there to totally break the American perception of reality.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: And that is what has happened over the last six
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: like more than six years, like is just the complete
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: disillusion of a shared reality. And that is so much
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: more damaging than any bomb that could be dropped or
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: any election that could be stolen. Is just that total corruption,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: like the thing that keeps us from ever finding common ground.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think we have legitimately passed the point
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: where we're ever going to find common ground. Yeah.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I can't. I mean I know I personally cannot
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: find common ground with a Republican. That is impossible to me.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing about that for me is there can
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: be issues we agree on. I agree we needed space
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: force things like that, Like, I feel like I have
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: no problem finding common ground there. But it's the other
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: stuff that people on that side believe that makes it
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: so unpalatable. But here's the thing, Like, for me, everything
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: about Trump, it started with immigration, Like that was my
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: initial concern about Trump was immigration, and it still kind
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: of is. Yeah, but I'm also not enough of a
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: fundamentalist to not accept that. Well Obama and Biden started that,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: and things aren't any better under Biden. And what's frustrating
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: is if you hold that view of things where well, yeah,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Trump was a monster when it came to immigration, but
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: so it is Biden and Obama. Well now you're a
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: centrist and it's like no, I'm not.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: No, that's the left disposition. Yeah, he is the thing.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: I align with what people on the left believe. But
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: also you've got to be able to criticize your own side.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Abs and Biden. I don't consider my side, but he's
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: closer to my side. I mean sure, conceptually right.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: That's the thing again, This is the whole thing about
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: the fractured reality is that we're talking about something that
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: should be a very easy connection, and instead we have
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: to go into this very high minded, like like you said,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: conceptual like hypothetical reality of like, okay, ignoring everything else
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: that sucks. He agrees with me on these issues and
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: other than that we disagree. But I guess on the
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, it's he's closer to me, Like
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: that's it's everything that we're dealing with.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what I could see happening with people listening to
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: this episode who are a little more fervent in their
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: support of either side. I think we're being pretty fair
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: when it comes to criticizing both halves of the Russia investigation,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: the Democrat half and the Republican half. Yeah, And in
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: a perfect world, people would hear that and be like, oh,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: well that's fair. I get like, you have your criticisms,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: but no, people on the left are gonna hear, oh, well,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: he's saying the Russian investigation wasn't anything and that's bullshit, right, Like,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: they're only gonna hear, yeah, that I'm criticizing that, and
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: people on the right will only hear that, well, you're
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: your investigation's bullshit too, Yeah, Like it can't be that,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: it has to be. No, we're both like we're both
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: absolutely right in our stance, and that you won't That's
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: that's the contradiction there with the right. They're like, man,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: why can't you just have an open mind and except
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: that everything we say is correct and everything they say
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: is wrong. It's like, that's not like you're not being
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: a maverick. You're just the other half of the country exactly.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: You're not being a free thinker. You're just choosing which
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: fucking north star you want to follow. Like calm down, Yeah,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: it's I like that. I just said calm down and
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: calm down. Beating and shit, I mean, but fucking shit man,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Like it's these are the things that it's okay to
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: get angry about because they are actively destroying the world.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: So I think it's okay to get kindy heated about
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: that stuff. It's the fact that you know, everyone else
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: is getting fucking mad about bullshit that doesn't matter. Yeah, no, man,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I again, I don't know if it's
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: obvious that I'm in a real existential mood and I'm
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: usually existential, but like, holy shit, I am in a
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: real mood.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I hear you. So let's close this out for one thing,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: the Michael Sussman indictment. This is another thing that keeps
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: happening in this investigation. John Durham will release stuff in
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: court and media on the right, which stop pretending media
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: on the rights not mainstream media. Also, yeah, get over yourselves.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Fox News is mainstream media.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Like unfortunately, it's.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Just again, you're just the other half right now well.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: And fucking again whole tangent. But like none of the
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: liberal media side is actually that that's the whole again.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: We're just a right wing country. We are just a
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: right wing fascist country. That is the endpoint of all
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: of this stuff.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: And what you see happening with this version of the
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: Russia investigation is John Durham will file something in court
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: and right leaning media will seize on one detail of
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: it and be like, see this is some smoking gun
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: evidence that Democrats were spying on Trump. And with the
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Michael Sussman indictment, it's basically an FBI agent's word against
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Michael Sussman's word. And who do I trust in that situation?
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Neither of them, right. But John Durham filed some new evidence.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: It came out in December twenty twenty one, December eighth
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: that John Durham files all of this new evidence. And
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: there's like one piece that does point to Michael Sussman
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: having said he doesn't have clients. I think it was
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: an interaction with the CIA, and the right leaning media
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: seizes on that. But then if you go read up
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: on what he actually released, there'd be like four other
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: things that make it seem like Michael Sussman didn't lie
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: to the FBI. And in this case, there are handwritten
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: notes where FBI literally says Susman said he represents a
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: client who does not want to be known. Another note
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: that says the plan should be to convince Sussman that
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: it is in his and his client's interest to go
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: to the FBI. So what about that? If you think
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: this is smoking gun evidence that Michael Sussman committed a crime,
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: what about those notes that say he did tell them
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: he had.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: Right, No, they don't count. I guess, yeah, Like, I'm sorry,
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: we read all of it. Performing that's the thing. Yeah,
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: they know, they're not expecting. And here's the thing, most
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: people don't. No, yeah, I mean most people don't know
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: about any of them. Like, I'm not gonna lie.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I didn't know about any of this shit that was
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: happening in twenty twenty one and this year. I was
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: not like any aspect of a Russia investigation, investigation in
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the year of Our Lord twenty twenty one, in twenty
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: twenty two, I had no knowledge.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: And I mean that actually brings us to the last
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: thing I want to talk about, which is just recently
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: on Valentine's Day. Actually how romantic. There was some more
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: court filings that happened that right leaning media seized on
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: as definitive proof that Trump was spied on. We'll link to.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: I guess the least offensive of the right media being
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal. They the Wall Street Journal ran
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: an editorial that just straight up said Trump really was
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: spied on. And that is what right leaning media took
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: from this John Durham filing and the reason they said
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: that is because it came out that one the monitoring
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: of Trump's Internet activity carried on into twenty seventeen when
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: he was already president. And what John Durham, or what
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: people thought John Durham was implying in this filing was
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: that Michael Sussman and this guy named Rodney Joffey, who
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: was a tech executive named in the Michael Sussman indictment,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: but just named this tech executive. One. What people are
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: arguing this filing says is that Rodney Joffey got a
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: government contract to monitor in traffic and then exploited that
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: traffic to spy on Trump. And the way he spied
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: on Trump was his team of researchers noticed weird Internet
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: activity and they decided to run that up the food
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: chain and see what happens, which sounds damning if you're
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: reading a very skilled Wall Street journal writer tell you
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: about it. But what they're really saying is these people
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: did their job. This guy was hired by the White
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: House in response to a Russian hacking attempt to monitor
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: Internet traffic and if you see anything weird, tell us.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: So these people saw something weird, and they went back
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: and forth like is this really what we're seeing. Should
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: we even say anything about this and they end up
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: sending it up the flagpole? And whether they were doing
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: it on behalf of the Clinton campaign or not, I
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: don't know, but I do know that they haven't really
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: proven that in more than a year's worth of investigating it.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: And also it never came to anything, So why are
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: we investigating it? Who gives a fuck? No one except Trump,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: it's the whole thing.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it didn't amount to anything at all. Like
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: this just feels like retribution, and it's retribution against like like, cool,
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: you're gonna take down a lawyer in the Clinton campaign?
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, congratulations. Yeah, still tie to every you know, fucking
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton is just like a fucking Polterdeist killery wants
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: this nation. But like, you know, people probably were spying
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: on Trump, and you know what, absolutely I don't care.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: I think that's actually probably one of the better things
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: that the FBI has ever done if they did it,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: because he sucks and he was probably doing a bunch
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: of illegal shits.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Spy on every president.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, Why does the president get privacy? That doesn't
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: make any fucking sense.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: There should be a webcam in the oval office, like
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: you'll just get the watch.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Like the fucking Nixon recordings should have just been official.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: That should just be what happens is everything is being
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: recorded all the time.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what happened with this latest break in the
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: Russia investigation investigation is the right came out and said,
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: here's a smoking gun proof Trump was being lied or
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: spied on. The left media came out and said no,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: they were just you know, doing their job. And what
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: happens in cases like this is the right will then
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: move on to, well, the left is covering this up.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: That's why they're not talking about this. And I read
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: a We'll link to a ton of articles about this.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: A few of them are written by a guy named
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: Charlie Savage, great name, who writes for the Washington Postage.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: When he was talking about the lack of media coverage
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: of this news, he brings up an interesting point. Here's
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: a quote. He says, these revelations quote tend to involve
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: to expend significant mental energy and time, raising the question
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: of whether news outlets should even cover such claims. Yet
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: Trump allies portray the news media as engaged in a
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: cover up if they don't. And that sounds weird, like
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: he's saying, oh, we can't trust people to think about
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: stuff that they read. But having spent what I expected
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: would be about two or three hours researching this yesterday,
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: that turned into like six to eight because it's so
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: excruciatingly boring, I am so sorry, Like I get what
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: he's saying, like this is you're going to do a
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: lot of mental gymnastics sifting through all the twists and turns,
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: then end at a single charge of lying to the FBI.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: And who wants to do that work? It's yeah, we
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: just did it for you and we didn't even want
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: to do it.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Sucked. Sucked. Uh yeah, No, it's basically it's government funded
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory. It's the exact same logic of conspiracy theories,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: where it's just there's a million data points and if
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: you put them all on a graph, you can draw
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: a line through them, and that doesn't mean that there's
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: anything there. That just means that there's a lot of shit.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying the other Russia investigation wasn't that.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: Too sure, absolutely whatever, Man, Like I I never want
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: to talk about twenty sixteen. Ever again, I hate never, ever, ever.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: And like, I'm sorry, but in the case of something
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: like this, talk to me when it's Hillary Clinton being indicted,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: Talk to me when it's John Podesta being indicted. Until then, like,
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: I don't give a shit If a single Clinton campaign
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: lawyer lied to the FBI, that's not that's not going
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: to alter the foundation of our democracy. No, the only
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: people goes down.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only people that care or even know about
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: that are either Trump or people who are so far
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: down the rabbit hole that daylight is like a foreign
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: concept to them. They just have not experienced the sun
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: in years, that's how deep they are.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: And if you were one of those people who was
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: super excited about the news that there is now smoking
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: gun evidence that Trump was spied on, and you think
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: we're just not interpreting it the same way everyone else
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: is sure. John Durham has also come out and said
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: that that's not really what he meant. This is a quote.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government's motion, that
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: the government's inclusion of this information.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: So sure, I mean that's basically just I'm washing my hands.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: This is Look, I just did this. Will you take
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: this information? I don't care what you do with it.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: That's not that's not me, that's not on me.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, I mean, if he's not going to be
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: definitive about it, they am. I no, why how are you?
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: How do you expect? Again, this is the whole right
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: wing mindset. It's just like they just expect everyone to
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: care about the things that they care about in the
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: same way that they care about and if you don't,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: then you're covering it up or you're lying. And it's like,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: why do you expect with everything that's going on in
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: the world, with everything that's going on in this country,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: with the very systems that have basically been propping us
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: up are collapsing around us, how are we supposed to
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: give us single fuck about any of this shit? How
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: do you expect anyone to care?
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, it's this is it's a distraction. It's a distraction,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: like the first Russian investigation was a distraction.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: And it's a worse distraction because nobody's listening, so it's
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: not even doing that job.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like, don't you have twenty twenty election lawsuits to file?
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Like I mean here again, If the right wing, and
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: yes they do, if the right wing could even pretend
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: to care about poor people and minorities, they could be
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: doing so much fucking damage on the COVID response, on everything,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: Like they could push social services that would actually help people,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: and that would boost the Republican Party's morale. I'm not morale,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: but like they're standing in the country and they would
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: drive people away from the Democratic Party. But they are
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: just incapable, ideologically incapable of doing that. Yeah, and we're
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: gonna all like in our country is just gonna dissolve.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: There's not gonna be a United States in like twenty years.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Oh what a time to be alive. I love it
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: so great.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, totally. By the way, I am, I'm starting
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Cantonese on duel Ego.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: Probably a good choice.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: So there's your mainstream media coverage of the Russian investigation investigation.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: You're welcome, everybody.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're welcome. We actually talked about important stuff in
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: this episode too. By the way, just listen to the
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: to the Russian war thing.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: We dug into stuff. Uh do we have anything to
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: plug before we get out of here. Democracy, try to
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: keep that gomocracy. It's not looking good. But don't go
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: to war. Let's uh yeah, let's skip going to war.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: And by that, I don't mean let's not go to
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: war in Ukraine so we can invade Canada. Come on,
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: have you heard this? No, that's that's a thing now
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: is people on the right want us to leave Ukraine
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: alone and focus on invading Canada because they broke up
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: those truckeror protests. And we certainly don't stand for protests
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: being broken up violently in this country.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't they just do their aren't they just gonna
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: do their own trucker protests? I I just sort of God,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: that's just gonna be what happens, right.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: It's a trucker shortage. I don't know.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, man, what the fuck? Uh yeah, I'm gonna plug.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Uh despair. I'm gonna say, Joe Biden, please, for once
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: in your life, do the right thing. I know it's hard,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: but I don't want to go. I don't want there
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: to be war. I really don't like that's me. This
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: is just this is just honesty, I really do. I
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: really don't want that that that it makes me so
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: to my.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: Stomach, especially not one that could very easily turn into
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: a world war.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: To turn into a world war could just there's just
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: gonna it'll just result. There's so many people are gonna die.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be so awful for our species if this
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: war happens. Uh, so please don't. I hope it doesn't happen.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: That's my plug. Oh and also you can follow me
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: on Twitter and letterbox to hide their hyde R. I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: just watched The Humans from last year. Highly highly recommend
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: you saw it. That movie destroyed me last night, if
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: fucking absolutely rocked my world.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: So watch the Humans.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Watch the Humans it I uh.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and Adam
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: Todd Brown It's Todd with one D. Can follow the
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: podcast on Twitter and Instagram, at can Spira, pops and
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: you know bonus episodes Patreon dot com, slash on pops
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: on Pops network, dot Supercast, dot tech or right there
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: in your Spotify app bonus episodes everywhere. I think an
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: Apple podcast too, maybe soon, yeah, I think No. I'm
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: certainly not getting money from them, so no, probably better
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: not be able to right now. Uh. And I think
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: that's it. Let's get out of here. Olivia saygabye bye,
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: goodbye everybody. We love you. Another nat about another at
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: another another sea, an anata, another an another lad later
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: an anata