# "They're Weaponizing the Weather!" (and other insanity)

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 15 Jul 2025, 55 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/66933330/podcast814_weaponizeweather.mp3

Cloud seeding is the new chemtrails conspiracy theory. We talk about weather modification, the Trump store, the Ark Encounter protest, the IRS, and more! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
[0:09] Speaker 1: an idea.
[0:10] Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through.
[0:13] Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If
[0:18] Speaker 1: I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth,
[0:22] Speaker 1: not because.
[0:22] Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking, feel so much more happiness.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Truth Usian wisdom will come to you that way.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
[0:43] Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
[0:56] Speaker 2: I've been having these weird dreams lately. Have you ever
[1:00] Speaker 2: had a kind of an experience where your dreams are
[1:03] Speaker 2: just weird and kind of tragic and alarming and negative
[1:07] Speaker 2: and what the hell? Right? Well, that's kind of how
[1:10] Speaker 2: I'm feeling. I had this dream that my neighbor was
[1:13] Speaker 2: killed in car wreck, and I had this other dream
[1:15] Speaker 2: where my car was stolen. I woke up and I
[1:18] Speaker 2: was like, oh, my God, to thank Goodness because in
[1:20] Speaker 2: your dream, I'm like, what do I do? Will it
[1:22] Speaker 2: ever be found? How will I afford a new car?
[1:25] Speaker 2: Will my insurance cover it? Will my insurance premiums go up.
[1:28] Speaker 2: Do I just buy an old shit box? And you know,
[1:32] Speaker 2: and I mean, it's just one of those logistic I
[1:34] Speaker 2: have logistical dreams where things kind of go wrong and
[1:39] Speaker 2: I can't figure them out. One of the classics is
[1:41] Speaker 2: when I'm on the air. I have this recurring dream
[1:44] Speaker 2: I'm on or the radio and all the buttons, the knobs,
[1:48] Speaker 2: the fader knobs on the mixer board are broken off.
[1:53] Speaker 2: So I need to change volumes, turn things on and off,
[1:56] Speaker 2: and I'm unable to because the buttons are broken. It's
[1:59] Speaker 2: just we Natalie says, it's because I want control, like
[2:04] Speaker 2: or I don't like being out of control. Do your
[2:07] Speaker 2: dreams reflect where you are personally? They say dreams can
[2:11] Speaker 2: mean things. I tend to think that dreams are part
[2:14] Speaker 2: of the blender of the brain. Maybe they reflect your attitude,
[2:19] Speaker 2: Maybe they reflect things you are obsessed with thinking about,
[2:24] Speaker 2: affected by. I don't glean a whole lot of deeper
[2:28] Speaker 2: meaning from dreams, but you know, maybe it echoes back,
[2:34] Speaker 2: it pings back to with certain things about it. So
[2:37] Speaker 2: I've also heard this. I sure would like to know
[2:40] Speaker 2: if it's true that if you have a problem and
[2:42] Speaker 2: you're thinking about how to solve the problem right before
[2:45] Speaker 2: you go to bed, that your brain continues to try
[2:49] Speaker 2: to work it out, and sometimes the next day you
[2:54] Speaker 2: wake up and you figure it out. Now that sounds
[2:57] Speaker 2: kind of bullshitty to me, or maybe there's something to
[3:01] Speaker 2: do it. Does the brain actually problem solve when you're sleeping.
[3:05] Speaker 2: I have many questions anyway, as we wait for you
[3:09] Speaker 2: to dial in with whatever it is that is on
[3:11] Speaker 2: your mind. Today, I had somebody we were talking about
[3:15] Speaker 2: recent events. Trump makes it impossible not to talk about them.
[3:19] Speaker 2: Some people get pissed that I get political, and those
[3:21] Speaker 2: people can go somewhere else if they want have a
[3:24] Speaker 2: nice day. So Natalie was, I think, speaking on her
[3:28] Speaker 2: Facebook page about this video, this interview that Stacy Abrams
[3:35] Speaker 2: had done about how authoritarians operate, the totalitarian dictator Playbook,
[3:42] Speaker 2: and she went through I think it was nine or
[3:44] Speaker 2: ten points. They're really good.
[3:46] Speaker 3: Okay. So this happens in every nation that has become
[3:50] Speaker 3: an autocracy having been a democracy. So whether we're talking
[3:53] Speaker 3: about Brazil with Wilsonaro, or India or Houten and Russia,
[3:58] Speaker 3: the Philippines with Dutorte. So start with winning an election,
[4:03] Speaker 3: usually the last one you're going to get to have
[4:05] Speaker 3: for real. Number Two, you have an expansion of executive
[4:08] Speaker 3: power the president decides he wants more than he's supposed
[4:11] Speaker 3: to have. Number Three, you start to make the Congress complicit,
[4:17] Speaker 3: so you weaken them, and you neutralize or neuter the judiciary, like, oh,
[4:22] Speaker 3: I don't know the Supreme Court giving you unfettered power
[4:25] Speaker 3: and saying we don't have the ability to stop things.
[4:27] Speaker 3: Then you move on to firing all the people who
[4:30] Speaker 3: know how to make government work, so you gut the
[4:32] Speaker 3: civil service, and you do that because you want to
[4:34] Speaker 3: break democracy. So people forget the stuff that used to
[4:38] Speaker 3: get done, so you can't get your Social Security check,
[4:40] Speaker 3: so the CDC doesn't know what diseases are anymore. Then
[4:43] Speaker 3: you put in place these loyalists, people who are only
[4:46] Speaker 3: responsive to you. You put them in charge of the
[4:48] Speaker 3: FBI so they go after your enemies. You put them
[4:50] Speaker 3: in charge of the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense,
[4:54] Speaker 3: so they can signal to their friends and tell them
[4:55] Speaker 3: all about the evil plans that you have. Then you
[4:59] Speaker 3: make certain that you break how we communicate, so you
[5:03] Speaker 3: criticize the media and you create your own echo chamber
[5:06] Speaker 3: of propaganda. You call it truth even though you know
[5:09] Speaker 3: you're lying. Then you go to the next step, and
[5:12] Speaker 3: I call that step seven. So at step seven, you
[5:15] Speaker 3: have to blame someone. You have to blame people for
[5:17] Speaker 3: the broken government, for the broken promises. So you go
[5:20] Speaker 3: after DEI. You go after the vulnerable that dispossessed. You
[5:23] Speaker 3: go after any community that doesn't look like what you
[5:25] Speaker 3: think power should be. While you're doing that, you make
[5:28] Speaker 3: certain that you in step eight, you eliminate anybody who
[5:31] Speaker 3: could help them. So you sue law firms that do
[5:34] Speaker 3: pro bono cases. You go after philanthropies and accuse them
[5:37] Speaker 3: of giving money to the wrong people. You go after
[5:39] Speaker 3: colleges and universities that can teach people possibly what else
[5:42] Speaker 3: they should know. You get to step nine and you
[5:44] Speaker 3: start to private, start to encourage and incentivize private violence.
[5:48] Speaker 3: You send the US Marines into spaces they should not be,
[5:51] Speaker 3: You send the National Guard in. You kidnap people off
[5:54] Speaker 3: of the streets and pretend that's normal, because that's how
[5:57] Speaker 3: you quiet dissent, because you make everyone afraid that if
[6:00] Speaker 3: they don't do what you want, they might be next.
[6:02] Speaker 3: And once you've done those nine steps, steps ten is easy.
[6:05] Speaker 3: That's when you decide there won't be new elections because
[6:07] Speaker 3: everyone's either afraid, poor, broken, or complicit.
[6:12] Speaker 2: Okay, wow, well that is really good, by the way.
[6:16] Speaker 2: Stacy Abrams, in case you're curious, was a former Georgia
[6:20] Speaker 2: state representative. She is a humanist, a human rights activist,
[6:24] Speaker 2: and I am a fan. So she lays out the
[6:29] Speaker 2: classic authoritarian playbook and we've seen this throughout our history.
[6:34] Speaker 2: And my wife posted the video and said, how in
[6:38] Speaker 2: the world can anyone support this because it's happening all
[6:42] Speaker 2: around us. How do you not see this. She's a
[6:44] Speaker 2: woman of conviction, she's grieved about what's been going on.
[6:47] Speaker 2: And somebody I don't know, Inner Circle pops in and
[6:52] Speaker 2: all they say is TDS, Trump derangement syndrome. That's it.
[6:59] Speaker 2: There's not an art, there's nothing about it. In fact,
[7:02] Speaker 2: she never even mentioned Trump, although we know that's who
[7:04] Speaker 2: she's talking about. But his response isn't to say this
[7:08] Speaker 2: is not happening and here's why, and here's the evidence,
[7:10] Speaker 2: and here's all this other stuff. His response was TDS,
[7:14] Speaker 2: Trump derangement syndrome. So I went and I posted, I said,
[7:22] Speaker 2: I've been accused of having TDS. Of course this must
[7:27] Speaker 2: be true. It's not like Donald Trump has a history
[7:31] Speaker 2: of messianic claims anointing himself the chosen one. It's not
[7:34] Speaker 2: like he claimed he was the only savior who could
[7:37] Speaker 2: fix America. It's not like he had. The official White
[7:40] Speaker 2: House social media account published monarchical images of Trump as
[7:44] Speaker 2: golden idol and crowned king, and of course I had
[7:47] Speaker 2: to post the actual I alone convince it from the
[7:50] Speaker 2: twenty sixteen Republican National Convention, Donald Trump saying in his
[7:54] Speaker 2: own words, I am the Chosen One, and the official
[7:57] Speaker 2: White House account postings of Donald Trump crowned head in
[8:02] Speaker 2: front of Manhattan with the words long lived the King
[8:04] Speaker 2: in this bizarre AI generated image of his golden statue
[8:09] Speaker 2: over Gaza. And then, because I can't do it straight,
[8:14] Speaker 2: I said, while you're considering this, folks, make sure and
[8:16] Speaker 2: s not buy the Official Trump Store, where no kidding,
[8:20] Speaker 2: you can pick up Trump branded and often president themed beverage, buckets, hats, hoodies,
[8:26] Speaker 2: pickleball paddles, perfumes, belts, golf club covers, whiskey, koozies, dog bowls,
[8:32] Speaker 2: serving trays, bow ties, key chains, handbags, collectible coins, diffusers, mugs,
[8:37] Speaker 2: flash tree ornaments, blankets, towels, coasters, doormats, candles, books, slippers, flags, cheeseboards, corkscrews, pillows,
[8:46] Speaker 2: teddy bears, candles, pajamas, umbrellas, cheese, knives, necklaces, ice trays,
[8:52] Speaker 2: and more. Don't ever let pearl clutching Magas gripe about
[8:57] Speaker 2: Hunter Biden and conflict of interest. The Trump family has
[9:01] Speaker 2: turned the White House into a cash register. And this
[9:06] Speaker 2: is very much true. And for those who aren't familiar
[9:09] Speaker 2: with the whole Hunter Biden argument, Hunter Biden the son
[9:13] Speaker 2: of President Joe Biden. Republicans went crazy after this guy
[9:18] Speaker 2: because he took a board seat on a Ukrainian gas
[9:22] Speaker 2: company called Barisma, and he held that board seat from
[9:26] Speaker 2: twenty fourteen to twenty nineteen in exchange for influence in
[9:30] Speaker 2: the US Ukraine's policy decision. This was the accusation that
[9:35] Speaker 2: was made by Maga. Total conflict of interest. He's on
[9:39] Speaker 2: the board of this gas company and he's calling in
[9:42] Speaker 2: favors and he's filling his pockets and this is atrocious.
[9:45] Speaker 2: It's on American it's treason. And then we turn around
[9:49] Speaker 2: and it's just the grift of the censure. And we've
[9:53] Speaker 2: never seen anything like this. The Trump Storm has this
[9:59] Speaker 2: lovely the collection of I don't know what those are.
[10:02] Speaker 2: They beach bags and there are scarves. Everything has Trump's
[10:06] Speaker 2: name emblazoned on it. It says experience the world of Trump.
[10:13] Speaker 2: You've got a Mara Lago umbrella, row hat, a pearl necklace.
[10:18] Speaker 2: There's a ton of golf stuff because obviously Trump is
[10:21] Speaker 2: a premier golfer. Have you seen those videos where he's
[10:24] Speaker 2: shanking the ball off into the weeds and the trees.
[10:27] Speaker 2: Nobody cares. He's on the putting green and he just
[10:30] Speaker 2: sort of pats the ball, just kind of bats it
[10:32] Speaker 2: like a cat is bat and a cat toy until
[10:35] Speaker 2: the ball happens to fall in the hole and then
[10:37] Speaker 2: he gives himself a three. There's a video of him
[10:40] Speaker 2: on the tea box. He grabs his driver and he
[10:42] Speaker 2: swings as hard as he can at this ball on
[10:45] Speaker 2: the tee. He doesn't make contact, but he just takes
[10:48] Speaker 2: his club and walks off as if he hit a
[10:51] Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty yard drive, and nobody says anything.
[10:54] Speaker 2: It's the total Emperor has no clothes thing. Everybody's afraid
[10:59] Speaker 2: to say it, like, well, he's my golden ticket, so
[11:03] Speaker 2: if he whiffs it, I still look down the fairway
[11:06] Speaker 2: and say, ah, wow, nice drive, big power, straight line,
[11:12] Speaker 2: you so talented, and then you cast your check. This
[11:15] Speaker 2: is what these people are home and SPA goods diffusers,
[11:23] Speaker 2: Trump scents. That's right. When your house feels a funk,
[11:28] Speaker 2: nothing fragrances the air like Trump diffusers. Ah, the sweet
[11:36] Speaker 2: aroma of old nasty shoe lifts and rotting mango. It
[11:42] Speaker 2: fills the house, certainly fills the nose. H lovely stuff.
[11:47] Speaker 2: Forty five forty seven mugs Save America. Of course, he's
[11:52] Speaker 2: got the picture on the cover where he had supposedly
[11:55] Speaker 2: dodged the bullet. And I still struggle. I'm not a
[11:58] Speaker 2: conspiracy guy. Still struggle with the idea that this guy
[12:01] Speaker 2: got clipped by an AR fifteen bullet and his year
[12:04] Speaker 2: healed in a day and now there's no scarring. I mean,
[12:08] Speaker 2: I struggle with that. I don't. I just struggle with it.
[12:13] Speaker 2: But then again, didn't it wasn't There was a fireman
[12:15] Speaker 2: who was killed, so there was a lethal weapon that
[12:19] Speaker 2: was fired. But jeezus, I mean, who gets hit with
[12:22] Speaker 2: an assault weapon projectile traveling thirty five hundred feet per
[12:26] Speaker 2: second and the next day, after they wear the tampon
[12:30] Speaker 2: on the side of their head for a day. It's fine.
[12:33] Speaker 2: That just bothers me. It buds me. I wish time.
[12:39] Speaker 2: You know, what is that theory about how time could
[12:43] Speaker 2: be traversed like a landscape or a valley or something
[12:47] Speaker 2: where time isn't necessarily just linear, but you could actually
[12:51] Speaker 2: go forward and backward through time as if you were
[12:53] Speaker 2: walking on terrain. So I'd like to walk through time
[12:57] Speaker 2: back to that moment. Deserving trays, Concho, toads, jars and
[13:03] Speaker 2: all the people. Look an airplane ornament of Trump's jet
[13:09] Speaker 2: knew and improved, just like the Trump seven fifty seven
[13:12] Speaker 2: airplane one hundred and ten dollars. It's a matter with
[13:18] Speaker 2: these people. There's just such hypocrites. Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden,
[13:24] Speaker 2: Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden, Hunt h Bryden. Meanwhile, the guys
[13:27] Speaker 2: back when he and Elon were bosom buddies, he's selling
[13:30] Speaker 2: Tesla's on the White House lawn. Eh, he's such a
[13:34] Speaker 2: good businessman if he can prop it from the position, Eh,
[13:38] Speaker 2: what does it hurt anybody? Hashtag capitalism. We knew it'd
[13:45] Speaker 2: be bad. We all knew it'd be bad. The internal
[13:49] Speaker 2: Revenue Service has now announced that it's not going to
[13:53] Speaker 2: enforce the Johnson Amendment, which was supposed to prevent all
[13:58] Speaker 2: five OZHO one C three read nonprofit institutions from endorsing
[14:03] Speaker 2: political candidates. And we know churches have been violating this
[14:07] Speaker 2: law since forever. Well, now it's pretty much official. They
[14:10] Speaker 2: defanged the Johnson Amendment which put that prohibition in place. Now,
[14:15] Speaker 2: the other five oh one C three's that aren't churches, nah,
[14:19] Speaker 2: they're not able to endorse anybody, or they risk losing
[14:23] Speaker 2: their nonprofit status. Churches, Eh, knock yourself out. And I
[14:30] Speaker 2: wonder which candidates those churches are going to be promoting.
[14:37] Speaker 2: And then I have stressful dreams. I'm in a valley.
[14:43] Speaker 2: I feel like we need to change. Natalie and I
[14:45] Speaker 2: were talking, We're like, how do we how do we
[14:50] Speaker 2: get off the hamster wheel? Do you ever feel that way?
[14:55] Speaker 2: You get up in the morning and you see that
[14:57] Speaker 2: the world's on fire, and then you get on with
[14:59] Speaker 2: your day and you go through your inbox and you
[15:02] Speaker 2: meet your deadlines hopefully, and you do your honeydoes and
[15:07] Speaker 2: clean up the kitchen and what do you want for dinner?
[15:11] Speaker 2: Let's watch a little TV ten o'clock, Good night, love you,
[15:17] Speaker 2: alarm goes off. The next day, Get up, they carry
[15:21] Speaker 2: your stuff, go through your inbox, tay, carry your honeydees,
[15:25] Speaker 2: clean up a little bit, grab some dinner. Ten o'clock,
[15:28] Speaker 2: go to sleep. But you don't feel inspired to plan
[15:33] Speaker 2: anything else. You don't feel like you are mentally charged
[15:38] Speaker 2: in a way that makes you proactive to do something different.
[15:43] Speaker 2: It's just easier to stay on the wheel. And then
[15:46] Speaker 2: you add to that the knowledge that all of this
[15:49] Speaker 2: is happening, and it just gets worse and worse, and
[15:54] Speaker 2: we're like, we need to change. What's that look like?
[15:57] Speaker 2: How do we break the routine when there's so much
[16:00] Speaker 2: that has to be done? What's that line that says,
[16:03] Speaker 2: sometimes you do what you want to do, the rest
[16:04] Speaker 2: of the times you do what you have to. Now
[16:06] Speaker 2: I'm in a pretty good position. I mean, Natalie and
[16:09] Speaker 2: I both love what we do, but god, we're just
[16:11] Speaker 2: on the fucking wheel and we feel the same ness.
[16:17] Speaker 2: And then we think, well, how do we break? How
[16:19] Speaker 2: do there's got to be a cycle break? So this
[16:22] Speaker 2: is a force of will. If we do it, we'll
[16:24] Speaker 2: be glad we did it. What does that even look like?
[16:29] Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what the solution is.
[16:32] Speaker 2: I'm gonna cheat just a little bit because I'm going
[16:35] Speaker 2: to Nashville for nanocon, so I'll be able to get
[16:39] Speaker 2: out and interact with people. It's hard for Natalie to
[16:41] Speaker 2: come to things like that because we don't get to
[16:43] Speaker 2: spend time really together. I'm engaged, I'm working for the hosts,
[16:48] Speaker 2: I'm at the table, I'm hanging out getting ready for
[16:51] Speaker 2: the speech and shooting videos, and so she and I
[16:54] Speaker 2: don't get a lot of quality time unless we tack
[16:56] Speaker 2: on a few extra days, which you know we're usually
[16:59] Speaker 2: not able to do for a lot of reasons. But
[17:03] Speaker 2: we got to find it. Brian, and know I'm just
[17:05] Speaker 2: I'm drifting. I am drifting, But I know you felt
[17:08] Speaker 2: this right. You're on the wheel? How do we break out?
[17:15] Speaker 2: Short break your calls and more ramblings coming up next.
[17:26] Speaker 2: Thanks for spending the week with me. It's always an
[17:28] Speaker 2: honor to be able to hang out with you. We
[17:30] Speaker 2: have plenty of colors on the switchboard, so let's find
[17:34] Speaker 2: out what you have to say. Six oh five, Robin,
[17:37] Speaker 2: are you with me?
[17:39] Speaker 4: Yes? I am fis.
[17:40] Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
[17:43] Speaker 4: I will be at manacon To, so I'll see you there.
[17:47] Speaker 4: And we did the Art protest here in Kentucky this
[17:50] Speaker 4: past weekend. It was great, It was great. It was hot,
[17:54] Speaker 4: really hot.
[17:55] Speaker 2: For those who don't the counter protest is describe what
[17:59] Speaker 2: that is for people.
[18:01] Speaker 4: Well, in Kentucky we have a replica supposedly it's not
[18:05] Speaker 4: really actually a boat anyway, but in Williams Sound, Kentucky
[18:09] Speaker 4: that is supposed to be Noah's Ark, like a replica
[18:12] Speaker 4: of nos Arc. They have, you know, the dinosaurs there
[18:16] Speaker 4: that we're supposed to be on the boat. And it
[18:19] Speaker 4: was a really nice time. We had a guy up
[18:22] Speaker 4: on the heel filmingis.
[18:24] Speaker 2: Was he with you or was he with the Arc encounter?
[18:28] Speaker 4: I don't know who was that. He like put out
[18:30] Speaker 4: he was doing a live stream of our protest, but
[18:32] Speaker 4: he was definitely not with us. Of course we marched down.
[18:37] Speaker 4: Have you ever been to the Art protest? I didn't
[18:39] Speaker 4: know if you had ever been or not.
[18:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, I attended one years ago and I spoke it
[18:45] Speaker 2: was okay for I'll add to what you've already kind
[18:48] Speaker 2: of set up here if you don't mind real fast.
[18:52] Speaker 2: Ken Hill, go ahead, founder of Answers in Genesis, is
[18:55] Speaker 2: a Young Earth creationist who believes that the planet is
[18:58] Speaker 2: younger than the Sumerian civilization, okay, six thousand years because
[19:04] Speaker 2: God said so, and he believes the literal story of
[19:07] Speaker 2: Noah's art. So he built the Creation Museum, which is
[19:12] Speaker 2: an oxymoron, which is a horrifying place in Kentucky. I
[19:15] Speaker 2: did a video called Atheists at the Creation Museum, where
[19:20] Speaker 2: I and a skeptics group in the area. We all
[19:23] Speaker 2: went in and we toured it, and I mean, it's awesome.
[19:26] Speaker 2: You know, you've got it's a high dollar event. I
[19:29] Speaker 2: got dinosaurs hanging out with Adam and Eve. You've got
[19:32] Speaker 2: the declaration that the reason we have weeds in our
[19:36] Speaker 2: gardens is because of human sin. There's an exhibit promoting incest.
[19:42] Speaker 2: I mean, it's just amazing. So anyway, we came out
[19:45] Speaker 2: of that and produced a video, and then he builds
[19:47] Speaker 2: this one hundred and ten thousand dollars paper weight. I
[19:50] Speaker 2: believe it's in Lexington, where it's supposedly an exact replica
[19:56] Speaker 2: of Noah's Arc based on the dimensions given in the Bible.
[20:00] Speaker 2: So I went into Williamstown.
[20:02] Speaker 4: The arc is in Williamstown. I think the Creation Museum
[20:05] Speaker 4: might be in my thank you, thank you for.
[20:07] Speaker 2: That, Williamstown. And it's an exercise in hypocrisy because when
[20:12] Speaker 2: kin Ham wants to get tax breaks for being a ministry,
[20:17] Speaker 2: he calls it a nonprofit religious organization, and when he
[20:23] Speaker 2: wants tourism money from the government, he calls it a business.
[20:27] Speaker 2: So he's sort of double dipping. And Matt Delahunty and
[20:32] Speaker 2: I went and toured it. There's a video of that
[20:34] Speaker 2: called Atheist at the Ark Encounter, and it's wacky. It's
[20:40] Speaker 2: just bizarre to go into this place. And I think
[20:45] Speaker 2: most tragically, we see a lot of these little homeschool
[20:48] Speaker 2: groups going in, these small private school groups who are
[20:52] Speaker 2: going in and these wide eyed children are looking around
[20:55] Speaker 2: at velociraptors in cages and you know, all of this
[20:59] Speaker 2: crazy stuff, and they are being brainwashed, programmed to believe
[21:04] Speaker 2: that this is true. I think this is going to
[21:07] Speaker 2: hamstring them in many ways for decades to come, if
[21:10] Speaker 2: not the rest of their lives. And so once a year,
[21:13] Speaker 2: skeptics go out and do an outdoor protest just outside
[21:18] Speaker 2: the entrance, right off the highway, and they bring signs
[21:22] Speaker 2: and cameras and we have a platform and there's a
[21:25] Speaker 2: sound system, and I went out and so you give
[21:27] Speaker 2: a short presentation and everybody's essentially saying to everyone on
[21:31] Speaker 2: the highway, Hey, check out the bullshit factory behind this,
[21:36] Speaker 2: and check out the bullshitter who put it all together
[21:40] Speaker 2: and helped to helps to run it. So that's what
[21:43] Speaker 2: the arc and counter protest was. But it was a
[21:45] Speaker 2: good time when I was there, And you're saying you
[21:47] Speaker 2: had a good time as well.
[21:48] Speaker 4: Yes, yes we did. We had like Hainburn sponsored it,
[21:53] Speaker 4: and then we had like the Kentucky Atheists was the
[21:56] Speaker 4: one that put it on, Joe Roberts, and we had
[21:59] Speaker 4: the course of I say, Free Thinkers is probably who
[22:01] Speaker 4: put it on when you were there. They're going to
[22:04] Speaker 4: do it next year for the tenth anniversary, but they
[22:06] Speaker 4: were just not planning on doing it this year because
[22:08] Speaker 4: they've done it every year. But yeah, we had a
[22:11] Speaker 4: good crowd. There was a sign that says Museum of
[22:15] Speaker 4: Incest and Genocide and the guy that filmed this was
[22:22] Speaker 4: like mad because he thought we were accusing the people
[22:25] Speaker 4: of going in the arc and committing genocide and interests
[22:28] Speaker 4: that he wasn't getting what the reference was to.
[22:31] Speaker 2: No, no, that's not us. Those were Old Testament characters
[22:36] Speaker 2: that did that stuff. Huge confusion. Robin, thanks for letting
[22:40] Speaker 2: us know what happened, and thanks for standing up for
[22:43] Speaker 2: skepticism in Kentucky.
[22:44] Speaker 4: I know they need you, Okay, yeah, and I'll see
[22:47] Speaker 4: you at Nenacon.
[22:48] Speaker 2: I'll be the weeks I'll see in a bid all right.
[22:51] Speaker 5: Bye.
[22:52] Speaker 2: So you walk into the ark Encounter and one of
[22:55] Speaker 2: the first things you see is what looks like a
[22:57] Speaker 2: puppy mill for those who don't know what a puppy
[23:00] Speaker 2: emil is. They're horrifying realities where breeders, these immoral pet
[23:07] Speaker 2: breeders for money, will take dogs and cads them and
[23:12] Speaker 2: these tiny cages and they're often massive. There might be
[23:16] Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty cages and they're all grouped together,
[23:19] Speaker 2: and they tramped these animals in there, often for their
[23:22] Speaker 2: entire lives and horrible conditions. And I saw one that
[23:26] Speaker 2: had PVC pipe that ran all the way through it,
[23:28] Speaker 2: with little outlets in each cage, and that's how they
[23:31] Speaker 2: gave them their drinking water. So they didn't even open
[23:34] Speaker 2: the cage to fill up the water, so they just
[23:37] Speaker 2: sort of piped a hose in and that's how the
[23:41] Speaker 2: water was filled I don't know how the food was filled.
[23:43] Speaker 2: And the dogs said, we rescued little Henry years ago,
[23:47] Speaker 2: and he had been in a cage they thought for
[23:49] Speaker 2: five or six years. And when we got him out,
[23:53] Speaker 2: I mean, it was just like you could tell it
[23:56] Speaker 2: had affected him. He was the sweetest dog. But when
[23:59] Speaker 2: we get excited, he could only he would only run
[24:01] Speaker 2: in circles, small circles. And it's because he had spent
[24:05] Speaker 2: his life confined in a box, and that's all he
[24:09] Speaker 2: knew to do was run in circles. And the good
[24:12] Speaker 2: news was is once we gave him a loving home
[24:15] Speaker 2: and opened up his world, those circles got a lot bigger.
[24:19] Speaker 2: So he would start small, and then he would run
[24:21] Speaker 2: around the perimeter the living room, and then he would
[24:23] Speaker 2: run through the kitchen. Then he would run so he
[24:25] Speaker 2: was still running. He would always run one direction. He
[24:27] Speaker 2: ran to his right clockwise, but his circle got much bigger.
[24:31] Speaker 2: But the puppy mills themselves sometimes you see them on
[24:34] Speaker 2: the news. These barbaric people will essentially leave these animals
[24:39] Speaker 2: in the worst of conditions for a buck. So when
[24:41] Speaker 2: I walked into the arnk n counter, I saw a
[24:43] Speaker 2: poppy mill. It was this row of tiny cages, all
[24:48] Speaker 2: grouped together, boxed together, and supposedly this is how they
[24:54] Speaker 2: transported some of the animals for a year or were
[25:01] Speaker 2: they were there eggs in them. I was just such
[25:05] Speaker 2: a bizarre thing, and I think it was his way
[25:08] Speaker 2: of trying to cover the sheer volume of creatures that
[25:11] Speaker 2: would have had to have been on the arc. Well,
[25:14] Speaker 2: you know, they were either really small or they were embryos.
[25:18] Speaker 2: So we put them in the poppy milk cages and
[25:22] Speaker 2: we stuck them here in these boxes, and then a
[25:25] Speaker 2: year passed. That's the kind of shit he has been there.
[25:29] Speaker 2: What is that sign? There's an actual sign in the
[25:33] Speaker 2: Arc Encounter that says, if you I'm paraphrasing, if you
[25:36] Speaker 2: can convince people that Noah's Arc isn't real, you can
[25:41] Speaker 2: convince them that the Bible isn't true. And Matt and
[25:46] Speaker 2: I took a picture in front of that and said, yeah, yeah, yeah,
[25:51] Speaker 2: that's that's that's true. That's true. Forgive me. There's a
[25:55] Speaker 2: garbage truck outside. Maybe you can hear it bleeding into
[25:57] Speaker 2: the microphone as I talk about. Go watch the video
[26:01] Speaker 2: Atheists at the Arc Encounter. I think you'll see Matt
[26:05] Speaker 2: Dillahunty and me on the thumbnail image of the video.
[26:08] Speaker 2: It runs about eight ten minutes and it's wacky. And
[26:12] Speaker 2: the best part is is there's already freaking water damage
[26:15] Speaker 2: on the outside of the arc. So he's expecting people
[26:19] Speaker 2: to believe that this thing, which is not an actual boat.
[26:21] Speaker 2: It's a facade on the front, and there's a building,
[26:24] Speaker 2: an actual office building that's the whole back of the structure.
[26:27] Speaker 2: But he's expecting people to believe that this thing sort
[26:30] Speaker 2: of traversed and handled seawater for up to a year
[26:36] Speaker 2: without any trouble, while the actual arc has water damage
[26:40] Speaker 2: appearing on a whole side of the ship. Don't tell
[26:43] Speaker 2: me that thing with seaworthy. It's crazy. Plus, nobody else
[26:46] Speaker 2: on planet Earth owned a boat or was able to
[26:50] Speaker 2: build a boat in the time required. The whole thing
[26:53] Speaker 2: is insane. It's insane. Let's talk to area code three
[27:01] Speaker 2: zero one high. What do I call you?
[27:04] Speaker 6: Hi? My name is Jeff him.
[27:07] Speaker 2: Welcome, what's on your mind?
[27:10] Speaker 6: I had a very satisfying career with a Food and
[27:13] Speaker 6: Drug administration, and one of the things I did was
[27:17] Speaker 6: to advise medical device companies on how to comply with
[27:21] Speaker 6: the law and it became something I did on purpose.
[27:27] Speaker 6: When I ran into trouble trying to figure out how
[27:30] Speaker 6: to solve some of these problems. I would get up
[27:34] Speaker 6: from my computer, go for a walk, and find somebody
[27:38] Speaker 6: to talk to about some unrelated topic. And nine times
[27:43] Speaker 6: out of ten, by the time I got back to
[27:46] Speaker 6: my office, the answer was in my head.
[27:52] Speaker 2: Your brain simply needed a few minutes to process the information.
[27:57] Speaker 6: Is that what I'm hearing without me actively thinking on it.
[28:01] Speaker 6: So the thinking happened in the background while I was
[28:05] Speaker 6: actively engaged in a typical conversation. Hey how's the weather outside?
[28:11] Speaker 6: Or Hey, did you win that soccer game this last weekend?
[28:15] Speaker 2: So on the back burner, subconsciously, there might be some
[28:20] Speaker 2: ram being allocated to the conundrum in question, and then
[28:25] Speaker 2: later on you can access the results of the calculating
[28:29] Speaker 2: that had been going on as you talked about pet's dinner,
[28:33] Speaker 2: the weather, et cetera.
[28:35] Speaker 6: Because the active brain got out of the way of
[28:39] Speaker 6: that other part of the brain that does that background thinking.
[28:44] Speaker 2: I may try that. I may try, if I have
[28:48] Speaker 2: a problem to back burner and then go do something
[28:52] Speaker 2: else where it's impossible for me to think about the
[28:55] Speaker 2: other thing. Exactly all right, anything else for today, No,
[29:01] Speaker 2: just to.
[29:02] Speaker 6: Thank you for having come into my life and help
[29:05] Speaker 6: me figure out all this shit so much. I'm seventy
[29:08] Speaker 6: years old now and I'm the happiest, most satisfied I've
[29:11] Speaker 6: ever been in my life. So, and you're a part
[29:15] Speaker 6: of it.
[29:15] Speaker 2: Oh, you're very kind. Well, it means a lot that
[29:18] Speaker 2: you called and that you're a part of the community.
[29:20] Speaker 2: Be safe, Okay, Yes, thank you, sir.
[29:22] Speaker 4: Bye, I see you later.
[29:24] Speaker 2: Speaking of bad shit claims, we were talking about the
[29:27] Speaker 2: six thousand year old Earth and all of that stuff.
[29:31] Speaker 2: Well did you read that after the horrible, deadly floods
[29:36] Speaker 2: in Texas. Now we're seeing all kinds of conspiracy theories
[29:41] Speaker 2: that are just bandying about left and right, many of
[29:45] Speaker 2: them having to do with weather manipulation. Ryan Hall runs
[29:51] Speaker 2: the weather channel called Ryan Hall, y'all, And it sounds
[29:57] Speaker 2: like a punchline, But I'm telling this guy's awesome. Let
[30:00] Speaker 2: me pull up his page real fast, Ryan Hall, y'all.
[30:05] Speaker 2: I followed this guy whenever there's severe weather. He is
[30:10] Speaker 2: an actual meteorologist who will do these long form live
[30:13] Speaker 2: streams whenever there is weather anywhere. And he's good and
[30:19] Speaker 2: he's got correspondence, for lack of a better word, he's
[30:22] Speaker 2: got drone footage from the field. He's got people sending
[30:25] Speaker 2: him information from all of the places he is reporting on,
[30:28] Speaker 2: and he is legit. And he posted something that I
[30:32] Speaker 2: felt was really good. And then I'm going to get
[30:34] Speaker 2: into Marjorie Taylor Green, Okay, because how can I not?
[30:38] Speaker 2: He posted this. He said, y'all, when it rains a lot,
[30:41] Speaker 2: it floods. It's always been that way. Flooding has existed
[30:46] Speaker 2: as long as rain has It can destroy homes, wreck communities,
[30:51] Speaker 2: and take lives. That's why we built warning systems. That's
[30:55] Speaker 2: why I do what I do. But lately there's a
[30:58] Speaker 2: rise in conspiracy theory about weather modification and government floods.
[31:04] Speaker 2: These claims aren't just false, they're dangerous. They distract people
[31:08] Speaker 2: from real preparedness and get in the way of saving lives.
[31:12] Speaker 2: Please check your sources. You're being misled by folks who
[31:16] Speaker 2: don't understand meteormology, or worse, don't care. Other meteorologists are
[31:24] Speaker 2: coming forward to say this is weapons grade that shittery
[31:29] Speaker 2: proceed with caution, will I'll just read from Forbes. As
[31:36] Speaker 2: as this story came to light always reliable is miss
[31:41] Speaker 2: Jewish space laser herself. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia District fourteen.
[31:48] Speaker 2: Published on the seventh of July. Marjorie Taylor Green fuels
[31:52] Speaker 2: government weather conspiracy after deadly Texas flood Green wrote in
[32:00] Speaker 2: a Saturday post on x she would introduce legislation that
[32:05] Speaker 2: bans the release of anything into the atmosphere for the
[32:09] Speaker 2: express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity,
[32:16] Speaker 2: saying quote, no person, company, entity, or government should ever
[32:21] Speaker 2: be allowed to modify our weather by any means possible.
[32:26] Speaker 2: Green did not reference the deadly Texas floods dominating the
[32:30] Speaker 2: news that day, but said she has been working with
[32:33] Speaker 2: the Legislative Council for months writing this bill to make
[32:37] Speaker 2: quote the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and
[32:42] Speaker 2: geo engineering a felony offense. The Georgia congresswoman said the
[32:48] Speaker 2: bill would be similar to Florida's new law and makes
[32:50] Speaker 2: cloud seating and other weather modification activities illegal. Green has
[32:55] Speaker 2: a history of stoking conspiracies that a government deeps date
[33:00] Speaker 2: creates catastrophic weather events, including suggesting hurricanes have been engineered
[33:06] Speaker 2: to hit Republican areas harder than those with more democrats,
[33:12] Speaker 2: and speculating that lasers spark wild fires. The conspiracy that
[33:19] Speaker 2: weather's manipulated by forces other than nature has been repeatedly
[33:23] Speaker 2: debunked amid an increase in dangerous weather caused by climate change.
[33:29] Speaker 2: NOAA does not fund or participate in cloud seating or
[33:34] Speaker 2: other weather modification projects. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[33:40] Speaker 2: writes on its website. Here is a meteorologist named Paul Delegato.
[33:46] Speaker 2: This was posted this morning. Cloud seating, cloud seating, cloud seating. Apparently,
[33:52] Speaker 2: cloud seating is now the cause of all major weather
[33:55] Speaker 2: events Texas floods, cloud seating, Hurricane Milton, cloud seeding, snow
[34:01] Speaker 2: in the Florida Panhandle. Cloud seeding. Let me set the
[34:06] Speaker 2: record straight about cloud seeding. First thing. First. Cloud seeding
[34:09] Speaker 2: has been done for decades. Operation Popeye was a cloud
[34:13] Speaker 2: seeding mission to enhance the monsoon during the Vietnam War,
[34:18] Speaker 2: though historians will tell you that it is debatable whether
[34:21] Speaker 2: or not it had any impact on the outcome of
[34:24] Speaker 2: the war. Cloud seeding is not geoengineering. Cloud seeding is
[34:29] Speaker 2: a small scale weather modification that aims to enhance rain
[34:33] Speaker 2: or snow from clouds. It cannot make rain from clear skies.
[34:38] Speaker 2: It cannot end droughts. It involves introducing tiny particles softened
[34:43] Speaker 2: silver iodide into specific types of clouds to act as
[34:48] Speaker 2: nuclei for ice crystal formation. These particles help water droplets
[34:53] Speaker 2: in the clouds to freeze and grow, eventually falling as precipitation.
[34:58] Speaker 2: It is done using small planes or even cannons on
[35:02] Speaker 2: the ground. Cloud seating does not make contrails in the sky. Well,
[35:08] Speaker 2: then see it could have made the floods in Texas. No,
[35:12] Speaker 2: it didn't. Think scale. Cloud seating is done in a
[35:17] Speaker 2: cloud or a group of clouds. Those clouds with additional
[35:22] Speaker 2: nuclei from the cloud seating can drop an additional ten
[35:26] Speaker 2: percent to maybe twenty percent more rain or snow in
[35:30] Speaker 2: a tiny area. Think of it this way. There is
[35:33] Speaker 2: no need for cloud seating over Florida. We get enough rain.
[35:37] Speaker 2: It would not be worth the time or money, which
[35:39] Speaker 2: is why the Florida anti geoengineering bill was a waste
[35:43] Speaker 2: of time. But let's say we hired a cloud seating
[35:47] Speaker 2: company to seed clouds over Tampa. Small planes would take
[35:52] Speaker 2: off from a local airport and would drop silver iodide
[35:55] Speaker 2: into a tall cloud that was about to become a
[35:58] Speaker 2: shower or thunderstone. That shower or thunderstorm would have extra
[36:03] Speaker 2: nuclei to produce more rain. How much more rain may
[36:07] Speaker 2: be ten to twenty percent, So instead of a thunderstorm
[36:11] Speaker 2: dropping one inch of rain over downtown Tampa, the storm
[36:15] Speaker 2: may end up dropping one point one inch or maybe
[36:19] Speaker 2: as much as one point two inches of rain. That
[36:23] Speaker 2: is it, and the cloud seating over Tampa would not
[36:27] Speaker 2: result in any noticeable increase in rainfall over Saint Petersburg
[36:32] Speaker 2: or Clearwater or lakeland. It is small scale weather modification. Okay,
[36:39] Speaker 2: then if it increases rain or snow only ten to
[36:41] Speaker 2: twenty percent, then why bother? Because areas out west primarily
[36:46] Speaker 2: are desperate for rain, and even the hope for rain
[36:50] Speaker 2: is sometimes worth the expense, cloud seeding is boring. The
[36:56] Speaker 2: chances of you or I ever being impacted in any
[36:59] Speaker 2: way by cloud seating is pretty much zero. China has
[37:03] Speaker 2: a big cloud seating program, but if it was that good,
[37:06] Speaker 2: why did they have to truck in and make artificial
[37:09] Speaker 2: snow for the twenty twenty two Winter Olympics in Beijing.
[37:14] Speaker 2: Dubai has a big cloud seating program, and the big
[37:17] Speaker 2: flood there a few years ago was not caused by
[37:20] Speaker 2: cloud seating like the storm in Texas. It was predicted
[37:23] Speaker 2: to occur days in advance. Yes, even in Dubai there
[37:28] Speaker 2: are big flood events on occasion. Some of you are saying, whatever,
[37:33] Speaker 2: I do not want anyone messing with the weather. You
[37:36] Speaker 2: know what. You certainly have the right to feel that way.
[37:40] Speaker 2: Any weather modification or future studies research projects on geo
[37:45] Speaker 2: engineering should be openly discussed and should not be done
[37:49] Speaker 2: in secrets. Watch the meteorologists, Watch the meteorologist, and listen
[37:58] Speaker 2: to actual sign It is amazing how much people can learn.
[38:05] Speaker 2: Plenty more to talk about, and plenty more of your calls.
[38:08] Speaker 2: We continue in just a second. We had mentioned Nanocon
[38:17] Speaker 2: a few minutes ago. There are some great events coming
[38:21] Speaker 2: up all around the country. Free Thought events still planned
[38:24] Speaker 2: for the rest of twenty twenty five, and if you
[38:26] Speaker 2: want to find out where and when and how and
[38:29] Speaker 2: tickets and details and everything, you can go to the
[38:33] Speaker 2: Thinkingatheist dot com and then click on the events tab
[38:38] Speaker 2: right there from the homepage. Four zero three. Hi, thanks
[38:44] Speaker 2: for waiting. Who's this?
[38:46] Speaker 5: Hey?
[38:46] Speaker 2: This is Ron.
[38:47] Speaker 5: How are you doing, Seth?
[38:48] Speaker 2: I'm good, Ron let's talk what's on your mind.
[38:51] Speaker 5: That the wee can readon conference in Calgary. Ween, we
[38:54] Speaker 5: came and it's a boat Trump and I know you've
[38:59] Speaker 5: kind of done whole store there in all the merchandises drifting.
[39:03] Speaker 5: Do you think that the midterm elections is going to
[39:06] Speaker 5: be enough to turn the tide?
[39:09] Speaker 2: Well, honestly, I would love for the twenty twenty four
[39:13] Speaker 2: presidential election to be held right now. I'm convinced that
[39:18] Speaker 2: the moderate maga is the people who were kind of like, oh, yeah,
[39:21] Speaker 2: he's a businessman, and then they kind of did their
[39:23] Speaker 2: own thing. They kind of checked out. I think they're
[39:26] Speaker 2: having their own shit moment, and I think even a
[39:28] Speaker 2: few hardcore magas whose lives are being upended are going
[39:32] Speaker 2: on cramp like this isn't what I've voted for, and
[39:34] Speaker 2: you and I are like, oh, yes it is. The
[39:38] Speaker 2: problem is I have two problems. One, the public has
[39:41] Speaker 2: no memory. Secondly, what's that line? A person is smart,
[39:45] Speaker 2: but people are stupid. People are stupid. I mean the
[39:49] Speaker 2: people who are jumping onto every batshit keim trail, cloud seating,
[39:54] Speaker 2: deep state, vaccine, all this other crazy stuff. Those are
[39:58] Speaker 2: the voters that have helped get us in this position
[40:01] Speaker 2: in the first place. I also think that all it
[40:04] Speaker 2: will take is for one tiny incidental bump in the
[40:08] Speaker 2: stock market for people to get amnesia and they're like, oh, well,
[40:13] Speaker 2: things are a little better. I guess, status quo whatever,
[40:16] Speaker 2: and then they click the box. I worry that there
[40:19] Speaker 2: will be something that may have nothing to do with Trump,
[40:21] Speaker 2: or it's like blind squirrel finds nut right, he just
[40:25] Speaker 2: accidentally happens to get something right, and the public develops
[40:29] Speaker 2: amnesia about a decade worth of atrocity and the assault
[40:32] Speaker 2: on decency and the attack of the constitution and the
[40:35] Speaker 2: cruelty and the concentration camps and Alligator Alcatraz and everything else,
[40:38] Speaker 2: and they're like, ah, yeah, maybe things aren't so bad,
[40:41] Speaker 2: and they just go back to the status I worry
[40:43] Speaker 2: about people. I also am frustrated because Democrats have a
[40:47] Speaker 2: history of pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory,
[40:51] Speaker 2: you know what I mean. But I'll tell you this,
[40:54] Speaker 2: I do think the midterms seem like a thousand years away,
[40:58] Speaker 2: don't they. But I forever I do think that if
[41:02] Speaker 2: we survive a Congress that isn't totally an invertebrate Congress
[41:07] Speaker 2: might finally, since the Supreme Court is now failing us
[41:10] Speaker 2: left and right, I think that may be a stop
[41:14] Speaker 2: gap and help to prevent at least some of this
[41:18] Speaker 2: from going through until we can, I don't know, get
[41:22] Speaker 2: him out of there and as a massive coronary. Look,
[41:25] Speaker 2: don't judge me. Okay, don't judge me, ron, but I
[41:32] Speaker 2: don't judge me. I never thought in my life I
[41:34] Speaker 2: would ever do anything like this. I am going to
[41:37] Speaker 2: have a custom I don't even drink. I'm gonna have
[41:40] Speaker 2: a custom champagne glass made, and I'm gonna put just
[41:45] Speaker 2: two words on it. He's dead. And when that day
[41:49] Speaker 2: comes and he finally kicks it, I'm going to go
[41:53] Speaker 2: and I'm going to fill it up with something delicious
[41:56] Speaker 2: and I'm gonna have a little toast. I can't believe
[41:59] Speaker 2: I feel that much resentment. But the day he dies,
[42:03] Speaker 2: it will there will be a party. There will be
[42:06] Speaker 2: dancing and festivities in my circle. Do you does that
[42:11] Speaker 2: does that make you think lessons run?
[42:13] Speaker 5: No? Not at all, Okay, I mean it runs across
[42:17] Speaker 5: my mind all the time. It's like, can't somebody take
[42:20] Speaker 5: him out somehow?
[42:23] Speaker 4: Uh?
[42:24] Speaker 5: Isn't there someone around?
[42:26] Speaker 2: No? I don't want that. I don't want that. I
[42:28] Speaker 2: don't think martyring him. I don't think threatening the president.
[42:32] Speaker 2: I totally have And I know you didn't mean it
[42:35] Speaker 2: that way. I know.
[42:36] Speaker 5: It's just that what the thing, the stuff that he
[42:39] Speaker 5: is causing, it gets me sold. My blood starts to
[42:42] Speaker 5: boil with all these immigrants that he's detaining and then
[42:45] Speaker 5: the lies that he spews about them, and the lies
[42:49] Speaker 5: that he spews to his base, and he's just sticking
[42:53] Speaker 5: the knife in their backs and he doesn't care. He's
[42:57] Speaker 5: a true focio path.
[42:59] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[42:59] Speaker 2: I would like him to be stuck in one of
[43:02] Speaker 2: the concentration camps that he is now endorsed and promoting.
[43:06] Speaker 2: I put him in there. Thanks so much for being
[43:09] Speaker 2: a part of the conversation. We'll see you later, Okay,
[43:13] Speaker 2: i'd see you later. I just released a video, you
[43:17] Speaker 2: know what. This will be a good way to leave you.
[43:19] Speaker 2: If you've followed the YouTube channel, you've probably already seen this,
[43:25] Speaker 2: but I'm going to go ahead and play it for
[43:27] Speaker 2: you here. And then the audio for the podcast audience.
[43:31] Speaker 2: The audio podcast audience, which is actually much bigger than
[43:35] Speaker 2: the YouTube audience. This may be new for you, but
[43:38] Speaker 2: I had thoughts about what's been happening under the Trump
[43:42] Speaker 2: regime as we see the funding now one of the
[43:47] Speaker 2: world's biggest secret police departments, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are
[43:54] Speaker 2: really a terrorist organization. And I'm surrounded by people like
[43:59] Speaker 2: the guy Natalie's Facebook feed who was like, he actually said,
[44:03] Speaker 2: I don't care what happens to anybody anywhere if they're
[44:06] Speaker 2: not American, and he sort of gives you that America
[44:10] Speaker 2: born in bred. I was born here, I'll die here America,
[44:14] Speaker 2: true and blue, right. And I had thoughts on that
[44:17] Speaker 2: about what it means to be born American. If you're
[44:21] Speaker 2: here in the United States and you don't have any
[44:24] Speaker 2: reason to worry about Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting or
[44:28] Speaker 2: deporting you. I am glad for you. I'm glad for
[44:32] Speaker 2: both of us, really, and I'm humbled at how lucky
[44:36] Speaker 2: we are. You and I have no idea what it's
[44:40] Speaker 2: like to have to live in fear, fear that a
[44:43] Speaker 2: Mexican drug cartel might hijack us on the highway and
[44:47] Speaker 2: take everything we've got, maybe kidnap us or our children
[44:52] Speaker 2: for ransom, or abduct them and traffic them for drugs, rape.
[44:57] Speaker 2: Whatever You and I are not forty percent of Niger's
[45:02] Speaker 2: population that are trying to survive on two dollars a day.
[45:07] Speaker 2: You and I have available food to keep our families
[45:10] Speaker 2: from going hungry. As families in Somalia, Yemen, the Republic
[45:15] Speaker 2: of Congo, Haiti, Ethiopia, elsewhere, they are seeing themselves and
[45:20] Speaker 2: their kids starving to death, often because oppressor governments are
[45:26] Speaker 2: hoarding the resources that everybody needs to survive. Every year,
[45:32] Speaker 2: in the US, fourteen hundred people starve to death, but
[45:36] Speaker 2: South Sudan sees over thirty two thousand. Now one is
[45:40] Speaker 2: too many, but I mean twenty two times the rate
[45:43] Speaker 2: of what we experience here. It makes me realize how
[45:47] Speaker 2: fortunate I am. You and I aren't dipping buckets into
[45:52] Speaker 2: unsanitary rivers to drink water that might kill us with cholera.
[45:57] Speaker 2: We turn on the taps and we buy our bottled water.
[46:00] Speaker 2: We don't even think about it. Even the most desperate
[46:04] Speaker 2: among Americans still have access to better healthcare and medicines
[46:09] Speaker 2: than much of the rest of the world. We've got
[46:11] Speaker 2: our issues, many issues, But show me a place that
[46:16] Speaker 2: doesn't have an emergency room required by law to treat
[46:20] Speaker 2: us in a crisis. Compare our doctor's offices and operating rooms,
[46:26] Speaker 2: to the failed hospitals of places like Venezuela, where patient
[46:31] Speaker 2: beds are filthy, physicians are hard to come by, and
[46:34] Speaker 2: medicines are even more scarce. So many people outside of
[46:38] Speaker 2: our borders are born into nearly unlivable conditions they're forced
[46:43] Speaker 2: to survive, and shelters that are made out of old blankets.
[46:46] Speaker 2: They sleep on the dirt. They exist almost completely exposed
[46:51] Speaker 2: to the rains, the winds, the sun, the predators. Schools
[46:56] Speaker 2: are often a luxury, yet mothers and fathers are desperately
[47:00] Speaker 2: working to try and have their children educated, even if
[47:03] Speaker 2: that means the kids have to sit at a desk
[47:05] Speaker 2: in a brick box and the blistering heat of the
[47:08] Speaker 2: middle of the day. You and I don't know what
[47:10] Speaker 2: that's like. We haven't experienced those terrible realities. And I'm
[47:15] Speaker 2: glad we're lucky. Our accidents of birth landed us as
[47:21] Speaker 2: infants in the US. By nothing we said or did.
[47:25] Speaker 2: We were born into a better life. And it's in
[47:30] Speaker 2: the light of that good fortune that I have come
[47:32] Speaker 2: to see better. How strange it is for someone to
[47:36] Speaker 2: say they're born and bred American and proud of it.
[47:40] Speaker 2: How strange is it not to look at the suffering
[47:43] Speaker 2: people inside and outside of our borders with grief in
[47:47] Speaker 2: our hearts, and to give those borders such power, especially
[47:52] Speaker 2: with the understanding that our world's dividing lines were subjectively
[47:57] Speaker 2: drawn by men, and even more often than meritoriously defining
[48:03] Speaker 2: our nations, which is fine, they also too often set
[48:06] Speaker 2: us up to feel superior and dismissive about those who
[48:10] Speaker 2: were not born into our cradles of privilege. You and
[48:14] Speaker 2: I don't know what it's like to hold our children
[48:18] Speaker 2: close in case mask ice agents smash into our houses,
[48:23] Speaker 2: homes that we've known for decades, stripping husbands away from wives,
[48:28] Speaker 2: fathers away from sons, mothers away from daughters, many of
[48:31] Speaker 2: whom may never speak in person again, many of whom
[48:37] Speaker 2: were guilty of what only desperately trying to survive. They
[48:41] Speaker 2: worked hard day and night. They lived peacefully, and they
[48:45] Speaker 2: prayed every day they could continue to escape the guns
[48:50] Speaker 2: and knives of the cartels, the contaminated drinking water, the extortionist,
[48:56] Speaker 2: dirty cops, unsafe medicines, unsustained anably small bowls of cheap food,
[49:03] Speaker 2: beds without mattresses, disasters with no recovery programs, ratty clothes,
[49:10] Speaker 2: no shoes, the peril that comes when you're not born
[49:14] Speaker 2: lucky like you and I were born lucky. Are these
[49:19] Speaker 2: people all of the horrible things that they have been called.
[49:23] Speaker 2: It has been politically convenient to blanket blame the outsider
[49:29] Speaker 2: for our problems. Immigrants legally here and otherwise. They have
[49:34] Speaker 2: been tagged as everything from vermin to rapists and murderers.
[49:40] Speaker 2: But in my life, I've seen a whole lot more
[49:43] Speaker 2: headlines about the monsters already among us, many of them
[49:47] Speaker 2: born among us, who are the beneficiaries of that strange
[49:52] Speaker 2: luck that comes with a certain birth certificate, skin color,
[49:56] Speaker 2: or sexual orientation. The human tenden see is to turn
[50:01] Speaker 2: a blind eye to our in group because it's instinctive
[50:05] Speaker 2: to vilify the out group. It's us and them, American
[50:10] Speaker 2: and non American, clean and dirty, good and evil, and
[50:14] Speaker 2: yet we are all the human condition. Now, nobody's saying
[50:19] Speaker 2: borders should be a free for all. Nobody's saying the
[50:23] Speaker 2: border system isn't terrible and can't be a whole lot better.
[50:27] Speaker 2: But the solutions to our problems do not fit on
[50:30] Speaker 2: a meme or in a campaign slogan or on a
[50:33] Speaker 2: T shirt. I'm convinced that we must realize that born
[50:39] Speaker 2: American isn't the flex many people think it is. It's
[50:43] Speaker 2: just what happened, and we must ask ourselves what we
[50:46] Speaker 2: would do. How many dangerous mountains we would climb, how
[50:51] Speaker 2: many deadly rivers we would cross, how many desperate measures
[50:55] Speaker 2: we would take? How far would we go just to survive,
[51:00] Speaker 2: to help our kids survive, and maybe just maybe carve
[51:05] Speaker 2: out a way to live a better life in peace
[51:08] Speaker 2: and safety. The reason so many are horrifying that ICE
[51:13] Speaker 2: has become a kind of American gestapo is because the
[51:16] Speaker 2: whole idea of ICE raids is one of dismissiveness, dehumanization,
[51:22] Speaker 2: and cruelty. Imagine the masked men waiting for you outside
[51:28] Speaker 2: of your appearance in a court of law. You get finished,
[51:32] Speaker 2: you walk out the door, and suddenly you are grabbed.
[51:35] Speaker 2: You're in the back of the van. Your loved ones
[51:37] Speaker 2: are screaming and crying, and without any due process, you
[51:41] Speaker 2: have become both less than human and a punchline for
[51:45] Speaker 2: people who are cheering your abduction. You become an anonymous
[51:51] Speaker 2: face and a concentration camp, hoping that you won't be forgotten.
[51:56] Speaker 2: You become a political football tossed around in a gain
[52:00] Speaker 2: that you never asked to play. You face decades potential
[52:04] Speaker 2: decades of isolation away from the people you love, potential
[52:09] Speaker 2: torture by guards who are not there to protect you,
[52:12] Speaker 2: and a world of suffering that's marked by mimable signs
[52:16] Speaker 2: like Alligator Alcatraz, places where tourists will stop to take
[52:22] Speaker 2: Facebook photos. You and I woke up this morning without
[52:26] Speaker 2: any worry of any of that happening to us. But
[52:30] Speaker 2: we have to ask ourselves why what does it mean
[52:33] Speaker 2: to be born American? What does it mean to be
[52:36] Speaker 2: human and have humanity? And for those who hold to
[52:41] Speaker 2: a peace loving faith tradition, how might this culture all
[52:45] Speaker 2: around us have treated Jesus, the brown skinned immigrant, whose
[52:50] Speaker 2: best teachings were about loving your neighbor, kindness, forgiveness, service, humility,
[52:57] Speaker 2: rejecting hate, not loving money, doing unto others. Right, I mean,
[53:03] Speaker 2: whether or not you believe in that Jesus. Those that
[53:07] Speaker 2: do should ask themselves if the Jesus Christ who drove
[53:11] Speaker 2: the money changers out of the temple and spoke in
[53:15] Speaker 2: First John three point seventeen about giving to brothers and
[53:18] Speaker 2: sisters in need, how would that Jesus be treated by
[53:23] Speaker 2: people today? And how might that Jesus feel about a
[53:27] Speaker 2: kidnapping culture of celebrated cruelty that has valued and devalued
[53:33] Speaker 2: flesh and blood human beings based only on what side
[53:37] Speaker 2: of a line they happen to be born on. There
[53:41] Speaker 2: is an old line that was originally attributed to Sinclair Lewis.
[53:45] Speaker 2: It has never been verified, but I still find it interesting.
[53:49] Speaker 2: The saying says this, when fascism comes to America, it
[53:53] Speaker 2: will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
[53:58] Speaker 2: Should the flag and the cross stand for cruelty? Or
[54:02] Speaker 2: are we all eight billion of us on this planet?
[54:06] Speaker 2: Are we fellow travelers who deserve mercy, empathy, consideration, respect, safety,
[54:12] Speaker 2: opportunity regardless, to see ourselves as citizens of the United States,
[54:18] Speaker 2: but more importantly, citizens of the world. Maybe that should
[54:23] Speaker 2: be the American dream. And with that I will leave
[54:29] Speaker 2: you to it. It's always an honor to spend time
[54:32] Speaker 2: with you. I'll see you later.
[54:34] Speaker 1: Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a
[54:37] Speaker 1: complete archive of podcasts and videos, products like mugs and
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