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QAA Podcast
Terminal Empire Hallucinations feat. Mike Rothschild (E357)
01:09:48
Travis and Jake are joined by journalist Mike Rot…
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- [00:00]
Sam
Sam, if you're hearing this, well done.
- [00:34]
Jake
You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the qaa podcast, episode 357, Terminal Empire Hallucinations, featuring Mike Rothschild. As always, we are your hosts, Jake.
- [00:45]
Travis View
Rockatansky and Travis View. I'm checking the calendar right now, and it seems as though the old world is dying while the new world struggles to be born. That means if the Albanian Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci is to be believed, now is the time of monsters. And we're here to unpack some of the violence, lies, and absurdity of this particular moment of the interregnum. That includes the shooting, death, and smearing by federal agents of another person in Minnesota. The White House manipulating photos using AI Cash Patel treating the FBI like his personal hype house, and alleged time travel by the late Charlie Kirk. And here to join us to talk about it all is journalist Mike Rothschild. Mike, it's a pleasure to have you back.
- [01:24]
Mike Rothschild
Pleasure to be here. You guys are my personal hype house.
- [01:29]
Jake
And you, us, and we ours and them here. How's everybody doing?
- [01:36]
Mike Rothschild
Doing all right. You know, every time we talk, something horrible happened, but, you know, such is such as the nature of our jobs.
- [01:43]
Jake
Yeah. Yeah, that's when we call Mike. When it's not just, like, one weird thing popping off, but it's like three or four horrible things, like, all at once, sort of in rapid succession. That's. That's when, you know, Mike's coming on the show.
- [01:55]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
Yep.
- [01:55]
Sam
Yep.
- [01:56]
Mike Rothschild
It's great. Yeah.
- [01:57]
Travis View
I mean, yeah. I mean, I think I have this, you know, pervasive sense of dread that, like, gets worse by the day, but, like, other than that, I think I'm doing okay.
- [02:06]
Jake
Yeah. I have found myself, like, pretty radicalized, like, these last couple weeks, like, in a new. In a new way. I don't know if I should be saying that out loud on a. On a show that the government could potentially listen to and fine me, but I don't care. I think people should know that. Like, I feel like I'm changing, and I feel like. I feel like I owe an apology to, like, all my friends and family who are, like, I'm so worried, like, what'll happen if Trump wins again? I was like, oh. He's like, oh, he'll just be, like, hampered by investigation. It'll be just like the first term. Like, it'll be bad, but it won't be too bad. And then we'll be done with him, and it'll be like. It'll be like, good riddance. I was so wrong. And. Yeah, and that doesn't feel good either.
- [02:48]
Mike Rothschild
Well, you know, the nice thing is that maybe it's not nice, but you can kind of say whatever you want. And they don't really even need a reason to kill you at this point. They'll just arrest you for resisting arrest, and then they'll just kill you because you resisted arrest.
- [03:04]
Jake
Yeah. By the way, now, of course, there's so many videos, and I know we're gonna get into it, but, like, I have now seen so many videos of, like, a person doing exactly what you're told to do by the police. I don't know if, you know, he puts his hand up basically as soon as the, like, officers descend on him before he's thrown to the ground. And the only movement. He's basically trying to protect his head from, like, you know, getting bashed in by these, you know, eight or nine guys who, like, jump on him. No, this guy is, like. It's infuriating. I mean, it's no less infuriating than last week's murder or two weeks ago, whatever. But, like.
- [03:47]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, this is where one of them is telling her to drive away, and the other one is telling her to get out of her car.
- [03:53]
Jake
Yeah, yeah. No, it's bad. It's real bad. And it feels like. Mike, I'm sure you read this when you were growing up. Did you ever read the Art Spiegelman graphic novel series, Maus?
- [04:04]
Mike Rothschild
Oh, sure, of course.
- [04:06]
Jake
It's, like, one of my favorite book series ever. This, like, it feels like the beginning, you know, it's like there is a secret police. They are murdering people. The government is lying about it. The government is actually, like, altering evidence to fit their narrative. It's really. It's about as close. Close as we've been, I think.
- [04:27]
Mike Rothschild
Yep. Yep.
- [04:29]
Travis View
So, yeah, you know, talk about more chaos and death caused by Operation Metro surge in the Twin Cities. And most recently, On Saturday morning, January 24, 2026, Alex Preddy was shot and killed by a Border patrol agent in South Minneapolis during a federal immigration enforcement operation. Pretty was 37, a Minneapolis resident and ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA. Pretty bystander videos show Preddy holding a phone and recording. As agents and protesters and legal observers argue and jostle. The confrontation escalates until Preddy is pepper sprayed, then wrestled to the ground by several agents. After the struggle begins, an agent retrieves a handgun from Preddy's waistband area and moves away with it. Shortly after, another agent fires multiple shots at close range while Preddy is Still on the ground killing him.
- [05:16]
Jake
And then there's a video of an ice agent clapping like applauding like as they fucking mag dump into this like poor innocent guy.
- [05:25]
Travis View
Yeah, pretty. Pretty wretched. But again, this one was another incident which was captured from multiple angles by bystander video. But that didn't stop the administration from lying about it. You know, as we saw with the killing of Renee Good, this death was immediately followed by like almost the ritualistic slandering of the deceased. And this wasn't just done by like a non accounts online, but like the top of the federal leadership. Like for example, a top ranked draft pick for the wall, Stephen Miller, called Preddy an assassin. Which is batshit language.
- [05:57]
Mike Rothschild
Yes. Love to be an assassin who never ever takes out a gun. Maybe, maybe like a mind assassin.
- [06:04]
Jake
Yeah. If you're like the hitman guy and you're. You just stand in front of the target like with your phone out, all the like that's the alerts going. You can see the sort of like the Metal Gear Solid alert meter going. The closer you get with your phone, the more dangerous you are.
- [06:20]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah.
- [06:21]
Travis View
Border Patrol commander at large Greg Bovino declared that Preddy wanted to massacre law enforcement. Again with no evidence.
- [06:28]
Mike Rothschild
This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.
- [06:35]
Jake
He looks like big Julie from Guys and tough.
- [06:41]
Mike Rothschild
I mean he looks like kind of a Nazi forest ranger.
- [06:46]
Jake
Yeah. He's so little between those two big guys.
- [06:50]
Mike Rothschild
So tiny. And they always put him at this giant podium. It's like somebody. Somebody is on his own. Staff doesn't like him.
- [06:56]
Jake
Yeah, yeah, they really do. They got to get this guy a couple of phone books. You know, I say that as like a five seven man. Like I'm, I'm a, I'm not a tall man.
- [07:06]
Mike Rothschild
I will never disparage my fellow short people. But I also, you know, don't pretend to be some sort of like super commando.
- [07:13]
Jake
He has to go to Wolfgang O's. Nazi apparel for men 5, 11 and under.
- [07:19]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah.
- [07:19]
Travis View
The White House DHS head Krissy Noem labeled Preddy a terrorist.
- [07:24]
Mike Rothschild
When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.
- [07:44]
Travis View
Again, the video does not show him like reaching for his firearm at all. He was only filming, right.
- [07:51]
Mike Rothschild
They'd taken his gun away from him. Like they were supposed to do and then send us to the FEMA camps.
- [07:56]
Travis View
FBI Director Cash Patel, while speaking to Fox News, falsely claimed is illegal to bring a firearm to a protest.
- [08:03]
Mike Rothschild
You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law and incite violence.
- [08:13]
Jake
Travis views. I'm old enough to remember when you and me, when you and me went to the Save the Children protest, whose protection was being run by a group of proud boys. Do you think, do you think some of those guys were maybe armed at that protest?
- [08:30]
Travis View
I think they were armed. I mean, I also went to like, in, after the 2020 election, like in the immediately aftermath, Julia and I went to protests in Phoenix outside the, like, the tabulation center where they're counting votes, and there was a large number of who are clearly well armed. Arizona has, as is much easier to acquire firearms and wield them in public than it does in California. And no, there was, there was never any question whether or not there was their legal right to do that.
- [09:00]
Mike Rothschild
The entire ethos of the far right for what, 50 years has been, I will take my gun anywhere I want to for any reason I want to, and if you try to take it away from me, I will kill you. That is what this movement was based around. I mean, before the 2020 protests, there was Bundy Ranch. Before that there was the Tea Party. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people gathering at rallies, wearing tricorner hats, waving Gadsden flags and carrying AR15s. And it was all legal. And it was all supported by these same people who are now telling us bringing a gun to a protest, that means you're an antifa. What's happened?
- [09:41]
Jake
The parties have flipped. The parties have flipped. Left is for we are for free speech. We are for second Amendment.
- [09:51]
Mike Rothschild
It's like we're in the Upside down. And it took Trump a year to do it. And it's just like, oh, he does his little double jerk off dance and he gives everybody a hat. And now it's like, guns, please, Mr. President, take my guns. I'll give them to you.
- [10:05]
Jake
Part of me is like, I'm thinking, I'm listening to you, Mike. And I'm like, yeah. Like, so what do they actually believe in? Because, like, clearly if, like you're 50 years old, you know, like new wave Republican sort of. Yeah. Kind of like ideology. If you're like so flimsy that like the same guy that you said is like, that's the Guy that's gonna protect that. And that's why I vote for him, despite the fact that he's a shitty Christian and you know, maybe admittedly a shitty guy or whatever, like the same guy is now, like taking that away. So it's like, I just, it's hard for me to believe that it's anything like other than racism, that it's, that that's all they want. That if, like, if fascism makes like black people and brown people go away, like, great. If it's, if Buddhism does that, they'll do, you know, like whatever. Whatever will do that. I feel like supersedes any kind of rehearsed sort of like political framing, you know?
- [11:03]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, yeah. If you can turn your back on your ideals that quickly, were they ever your ideals? I think that's, that's a question we're going to have to ask ourselves.
- [11:12]
Jake
Yeah. Corey, get the beep cannon ready. I think these ICE guys should be into the fucking streets. I can't do it. I'm too old. I'm out of the game. This is a young man's game. This is a young man's game. I also have some mental health issues. I'm not comfortable owning a firearm. But like, where is the outrage from the Democrats also? Is it. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I told you guys I'm like radicalized these past couple weeks.
- [11:35]
Travis View
Yeah, yeah. It was interesting to see some gun advocate groups like, who like normally aligned with Republicans push back pretty hard on the insinuation that bringing a firearm to a protest can serve as a pretext for a field execution. Yeah, you know, I thought, I thought it was kind of interesting that like the strategy of like killing citizens and then justifying it by claiming that they are terrorists absent evidence. Remind me a lot of the administration's policy towards bombing Venezuelan boats because these are also extrajudicial killings. But they justify it by calling them terrorists when in some instances they're either merely low level drug smugglers or just fishermen. So it seems like it's very narrative first approach to killing people, whether it's in the open ocean or whether it's in, you know, the Midwest.
- [12:21]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, I mean it turns out that the ones who will kill you for any reason turned out to be the conservatives the whole time.
- [12:27]
Jake
And they weren't bluffing when they, when they put out the. What was it called, Travis? The NP7 or, you know, the memo that basically was here are the new designations for what a terrorist is. Yeah, I wonder if, if that was, you know, to set the Precedent so that they could add a couple like extra boxes to whatever paperwork they have to fill out. I'll bet ICE doesn't even have to do paperwork. I'll bet that's a non paperwork department.
- [12:54]
Mike Rothschild
You know, it reminds you of some of the show trials in the Soviet Union in the 30s where they would, Stalin would just want a bunch of people arrested and they would just say, oh, they were plotting to overthrow the government and they were giving aid to enemies of the revolution. I mean, they would just make it up. And it didn't matter what happens when.
- [13:12]
Jake
Trump dies, though, like when I personally, and I don't mean to be like a conspiracy like blue and on or anything, but like, just, I personally don't think he's got another three years in. No, no. Does this continue without him? Like, is there a power grab and whoever is like in charge of ice, like worms their way into like the executive branch. Like, I'm very curious what you guys think, because, like, is this here to stay or is this just Trump?
- [13:38]
Travis View
I mean, yeah, I mean, this is really baffling. It's like if this, this, this whole MAGA move, whether or not this whole MAGA movement can only be sustained on the back of Trump's strange charisma, or if there's some other movement behind him that was perhaps a little bit less disorganized than Trump, than be able to execute this fascist agenda with more efficiency. That's really the $20 million question.
- [14:01]
Mike Rothschild
Oh, yeah, it's a huge question. I mean, it. How much of what is happening right now is because Trump is so checked out and so clearly in cogn cognitive decline that he will basically do whatever the last person he talked to tells him to. You know, how much of this goes away if J.D. vance takes over? Because J.D. vance has the charisma of a two week old head of lettuce and nobody's going to do what J.D. vance says. But also all the sort of, you know, ministers who are running this, this show, they all kind of hate each other. I mean, you're seeing now with, I think Tom Homan is being sent to Minneapolis and like, oh, Tom Homan and Kristi Noem hate each other. And like, how many of these people hate Stephen Miller and Steph Miller probably hates all these people. And then Musk, they probably all hate Elon Musk and like this is going to fall apart because they're all going to kind of grab for each other's fiefdoms while Trump is alive and still kind of playing the kingmaker. They can all kind of profess, oh, we're just doing it for you, sir. We love you that much. But when, when he's gone or when he's not capable of making decisions anymore, that's, that's when we're really going to see what the future of American politics is going to be. And, you know, they, they have to keep Trump in office another year, because if they don't, if he's not in office, J.D. vance will run as a lame duck. He can't serve two full terms if he takes over right now. So I think Trump is going to decline more, but he can't. He, he has to stay in office. That's, maybe that's my personal conspiracy theory.
- [15:28]
Jake
Yeah, it's fine. It's fine, Mike. We can just, we can just. Everybody else is doing it. Like, it's, it's not fair. I see everybody else online. I'm like, everybody's having so much fun. I've painted myself into this horrible corner where I can't, I can't dream big.
- [15:43]
Mike Rothschild
Nope. If I want to say Trump's on Alzheimer's drugs, you know, fine. Still rules. No law at all in Deadwood.
- [15:53]
Jake
Yeah, but it's like he's clearly, like, doing a Mad King Speedrun. So, like, oh, yeah, who's, who's worm tongue, you know, like, who's whispering in his ear? Like, when are we, when are we going to see the battle of. Come on. Lord of any Lord of the Rings, guys, here, what's the battle where the, where the king throws himself off of the.
- [16:12]
Mike Rothschild
All right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't, I can't remember what it's called. But the problem is there's, there's more than one. I mean, there's, there's all the TV people, there's Tucker, there's his own ministers. I mean, it's, he's got too many people who are telling him what to do. And maybe that's the thing that ends up saving us, is that once he's out of the way, they all just kill each other. Metaphorically. Or, or they just do it. Maybe like they all get into like an octagon with like one lead pipe and just go for it.
- [16:42]
Jake
I see you're describing the age old Three Stooges phenomenon where so many bad things are trying to get through the door that they kind of jam up and so, and nothing happens. And so, you know, am I saying, you know, the country is invincible? No. The slightest breeze could topple us over. I'm just doing Simpsons I'm doing Simpsons bit. All right. Travis? Yeah.
- [17:11]
Mike Rothschild
Please.
- [17:11]
Narrator/Documentary Voice
Sure.
- [17:12]
Jake
Bring us back. Bring us back, baby.
- [17:14]
Travis View
Sure. Now, the existence of people who monitor the street activity of the Department of Homeland Security has inspired, like, the usual accusations of paid protesters. But in my observations, this got even more deranged. I've seen a lot of claims that, like opposition to thousands of federal agents who have flooded Minnesota and sometimes kill people in the street is the product of some sort of sophisticated, centrally controlled insurgency. For example, there is this tweet from a user named Eric Schwalm, who describes himself as a retired Green Beret with an intel background. It's extremely batshit, and by all appearances, much of it was generated by an LLM. It has some of those signature ticks of AI writing, but it got 33,000 retweets, including a retweet from Palantir co founder Joe Lonsdale, indicating, like, this is expressing an idea that resonates on the Right. So, Jake, could you please read this? This is partly what this tweet said.
- [18:08]
Jake
Friendly reminder, by the way, to everybody. If you're doing well on Twitter right now, that's that. It's not good. It's not a good thing.
- [18:18]
Sam
What's unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn't quote unquote, protest. It's low level insurgency infrastructure built by people who've clearly studied the playbook. This isn't spontaneous outrage. This is C2, command and control.
- [18:34]
Jake
What command? Command and conquer.
- [18:38]
Sam
C2 with redundancy, OPSEC, hygiene and task Organization. They'll make a special forces team sergeant nod in recognition, replace ICE agents with occupying coalition forces, and the structure maps almost one to one to early stage urban cells we hunted in the mid 2000s. The most sobering part, it's domestic, funded, trained somewhere, directed by people who live in the same country. They're trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid response network against federal officers, complete with doxing, vehicle pursuits and harassment that's already turned lethal.
- [19:15]
Jake
Wait, is he talking about, like, the people in Discord being like, let's show up here and make it, like, tough for him?
- [19:20]
Travis View
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any amount of organization is evidence of an illegitimate insurgency and massive funding. Yeah.
- [19:29]
Jake
You brave motherfuckers, you. By the way, don't think I don't see you out there if you. If you're out in the fucking streets after seeing what these guys done. I saw the people who, who brought like dumpsters and chairs and they barricaded they barricaded ice at the fucking crime scene. Brave fucking souls, you guys. I don't know if I would have it in me, but I see you. Ok, it goes on.
- [19:50]
Sam
You're facing a distracted resistance that's learned the lessons of successful insurgencies. Stay below the kinetic threshold most of the time. Force overreaction when possible. Maintain popular support through narrative and never present a single center of gravity. I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society that should keep every thinking American awake at night. Not because I want escalation, but because history shows these things don't de escalate on their own. Once the infrastructure exists and the contrary believe they're winning the information war, we either recognize what we're actually looking at or we pretend it's still just activism until the structures harden and spread. Your call, America. But from where I sit, this isn't January 2026 politics anymore. It's phase one of something we've spent decades trying to keep off our own soil.
- [20:47]
Jake
Wow. Are you talking about. It makes sense if you're talking about the ICE guys, right?
- [20:52]
Mike Rothschild
That's like the actual thing we've been trying to keep off our own soil.
- [20:56]
Jake
Oh my Lord. These people are so disconnected from reality, it makes me sick almost the constant.
- [21:05]
Mike Rothschild
Need to be the victim and the constant need to be sort of targeted by a vast conspiracy, even as it's your own side who's doing this. And I think some of this is just a way to avoid any kind of self reflection. It can never be our fault and we've gone too far. No, it's got to be that there's an actual conspiracy. And you know, these guys dogpiling and shooting this guy 10 times. They're fighting against the conspiracy. I mean, this is like Nazi propaganda.
- [21:34]
Jake
This is insane. He's like, yeah, the people that they're murdering unarmed in the street. This is the beginning. This is the beginning of a well formed militia resistance up the people who are. Who are video trying to videotape mass this mom. Yeah, yeah, like people are just trying to. And apparently what this young man was doing first was he was like directing traffic, like trying to help. Basically just like trying to help people sort of like get out of the way. Probably trying to like help prevent, you know, what happened to Renee Goode. You know, more bodies there to get in between to like make sure, you know.
- [22:08]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah.
- [22:08]
Jake
And look what fucking happened. These guys are fucking Animals. Oh my God. I've never despised an organ, an organization more.
- [22:19]
Travis View
I mean, I feel like this guy was like doing everything he can can to sort of advocate for like imperial Boomerang theory, which is this idea that sort of the sort of the military techniques used overseas or you know, outside of the main territory will come home and be used to suppress domestic citizens.
- [22:37]
Jake
He's like, yeah, I see there's a guy. He's like, there's guys. I see guys. And they're wearing face, face protective gear, North Face backpacks. We, we, we saw this in Kandahar, you know, back in 90, 1993. You know, people just wearing fleeces and, and jeans trying to help women not get shoved onto the concrete sidewalk by fucking masked thugs that, whose identity we're not really fucking allowed to know and are controlled by a guy who started wearing suspiciously looking trench coats.
- [23:12]
Mike Rothschild
By the way, we're the good guys.
- [23:13]
Jake
By the way. Good guys. Yeah, we're the good guys. We're so. We're, we are the best guys. We're. Yeah.
- [23:19]
Mike Rothschild
Best of the best takes, takes eight of us to dog pile a 37 year old ICU nurse. Oh my God.
- [23:27]
Jake
The. More like, I wonder if police officers are watching this. Not that I really have any good feelings about police officers, but I wonder if they're watching this and just going like oh man, these guys suck.
- [23:39]
Mike Rothschild
Like I, I think probably a lot of them are. I would imagine I have a little.
- [23:44]
Jake
Bit of like insider information. I have a family member who works like at like pretty high level with like LAPD and nypd and he said that they're all like horrified. At least the people that, that he's talked to and that they're like, they're so worried. They're so worried that like it's, that there's going to be like a powder keg and that like if these guys keep doing this and getting away with it, like people will not stand up for this. People will not. People who are already in destitute places who have good politics. Like there is now a way that like they can make an impact on this world. And I, I fully expect them to do so, which is only going to make things worse by the way. I'm not advocating for any kind of violence. I am actually against ICE explicitly but. Sorry, this is what happens when we don't have Julian. I have to become the death threat guy.
- [24:39]
Mike Rothschild
Somebody's got to do it.
- [24:40]
Jake
I'll stop. Travis. I'll stop.
- [24:42]
Travis View
This is obviously I think this concerning especially this rhetoric because they're basically saying, like, like, no opposition to these federal occupations. And, like, operations are essentially a kind of, like, insurgent, terrorist, highly organized, highly controlled kind of activity. And if you frame it like that, you're really. You're really establishing a pretext to put it down by any means. Right. They're sort of creating a pretext for any amount of extrajudicial violence in order to suppress the local population.
- [25:14]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah. And I think the only thing that's really saving us is Trump doesn't have the guts to go full dictator because he still believes that the American people actually love him and that he's not a dictator, that he's a wonderful man and people love. He's everyone's favorite president. So he doesn't have the courage to do what a dictator would do, which is clear the streets. And, you know, he's already trying to de escalate. So I think that's the thing that's. That's saving us, which is perverse, but that's where we are.
- [25:44]
Jake
These guys are, like, used to doing this overseas. Like, if they've served in the military or whatever, they're used to, like, if they see a citizen, like, standing in the middle of the street, like, with a cell phone out, they'll just, like, wrestle him to the ground and kill it. Like, it's just like, we're just not used to seeing it here.
- [25:59]
Mike Rothschild
No.
- [26:00]
Jake
I saw something on. On Twitter where somebody was like, yeah, like, if you're seeing if these are the ones getting videotaped, like, imagine the ones that, like. Like, we're not capturing. And I. I fully believe if this is how, like, brazenly they're executing people in public, knowing full well that there are multiple cameras on them and they're killing with impunity. We've now had two murders and no announcement of, like, even. Even in fucking. Most cop murders that are, like, this fucking obvious with. With video evidence. It's like the officer is put on leave while, like, an investigation is going to go. And, like, now we've had two of these where the guys just get back into the car, get back into the Humvee, and, like, disappear, or the other guy just, like, fled the fucking country, like, right. Who knows where that guy is? No, it's. It's pretty. Not. Not good.
- [26:48]
Travis View
The White House has shown a willingness to not just, you know, state lies that, you know, contradict video evidence, but in one instance, even altered the photographic record for the purposes of propaganda. So we saw this in the aftermath of the arrest of Minnesota Civil Rights attorney and activist Nakima Levy Armstrong. Armstrong was arrested in connection with a protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, aimed at criticiz ice and according to reporting, the alleged involvement of a church pastor with ice. On January 22, Kristi Noem posted a photo of Armstrong. This is an unaltered photo of her being arrested. In that photo, she just has a pretty neutral, placid expression. She's being carried away. She looks like she's handcuffed, but, like, not. She's not very expressive right now. Thirty minutes later, the White House Twitter account posted a version that appeared to be the same underlying image, but edited so that Armstrong looked like she was sobbing with tears. And this appears to have done with AI editing tools, which is very, very strange. I mean, I. I think this, this is really, really sick because the altering the evidence not to like, make her look more guilty or something like that, to make her make it look like she was suffering. I mean, this is a very. The cruelty is the point kind of thing. It's like the original photo wasn't satisfying enough because she didn't look unhappy enough. They want, you know, the people, they don't like to appear very unhappy. There's this inherent sadism in the altering of the photo.
- [28:12]
Jake
You know what? Let's stoop to their level. I think we should fight fire with fire. Next time a MAGA guy gets arrested for murdering his wife, we should AI the arrest photo to make his. I don't know, we'll make his butt look like really big. Like so big, like hanging on the ground big. Or like we could maybe add like a duty stain. You know, a duty stain or a pee stain or something on the front of his pants. I think we should just do this back to them now.
- [28:40]
Mike Rothschild
I'm sure Gavin Newsom's working on it already.
- [28:43]
Jake
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
- [28:45]
Travis View
So when questioned about the altered image, the deputy communications director for the White House, Kelleen Dore, said, enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. So we have just poster presidency.
- [28:58]
Mike Rothschild
I'm so embarrassed to know what any of this means. It's like it's. It's the lamest, most square people exploiting this stuff.
- [29:09]
Jake
Like I said, this is. This is like the lamest person you went to high school with, like a position of national and international power. The memes will continue. I type as a 27 year old social media.
- [29:27]
Travis View
Heh heh.
- [29:29]
Jake
A Chan presidency.
- [29:31]
Mike Rothschild
Chan presidency.
- [29:33]
Jake
Excellent. Excellent. That was what bubbled to the surf of all the communities that arose on the Internet between 2000 won and now. That's who won. Yep, that's who won.
- [29:48]
Mike Rothschild
And it's a lot like the early days of QAnon when just the most unhip, lamest people were just glomming onto this stuff because it sounded edgy and cool and it was just. It was embarrassing to watch, and it's embarrassing to live through.
- [30:07]
Jake
I'm so surprised that we don't have, like, some new kind of QAnon with everything that needs to be reacted, explained to you of why the thing you're seeing is actually like, don't worry, don't worry. This is a good thing, actually. And it means that we're winning. You know what? I actually just answered my own question as I asked it. It's because they're getting what they want. They've got masked goons in the street executing libs.
- [30:31]
Mike Rothschild
Right. They've got.
- [30:33]
Jake
They don't need a poster anymore.
- [30:34]
Mike Rothschild
Right. And you've got the most important people in the country who are doing this stuff, who are saying this stuff. We're saying, oh, it's proof we're winning. Beginning. They're all terrorists. We've got, you know, we're. We're making. This is our golden age. It's. You don't need. And maybe this is sort of a discussion for a different show, but you don't need the riddles and the codes and the feeling of coolness and specialness and being an outsider. I mean, Donald Trump shares hundreds of these things every. Every night, practically. You know, Cash Patel is spouting this stuff on Fox News. Millions of people see it.
- [31:07]
Travis View
It.
- [31:07]
Mike Rothschild
It's not edgy or cool. I mean, some. Somebody a while back asked, maybe it was. I think it was David Hogg tweeted, I don't know why I remember this tweeted, what happened to QAnon?
- [31:17]
Jake
And I.
- [31:17]
Mike Rothschild
And I retweeted. I was like, it became the government. And unfortunately it went viral, proving that maybe I'm just spending too much time on Twitter still. But it's true. I mean, QAnon became the government, and you don't need to be an outsider or you need to go so far outside that you become like one of the 9 11, no plane people and like, in your own movement, don't want anything to do with you.
- [31:40]
Travis View
Another response to the altered image came from Abigail Jackson, who is a White House spokeswoman. She mocked people questioning the image with a tweet that said, excuse me, is that digitally altered? She also included the debunker meme which depicts a soy jack surrounded by text like fake strawman argument and source. So they will lie to you and they'll, they'll alter the record and they'll change things to their. And then they'll make fun of you for like, for like preferring something that's more truthful.
- [32:08]
Jake
Truthful.
- [32:09]
Mike Rothschild
And they'll do it in the lamest way possible.
- [32:11]
Travis View
I also want to talk about a recent New York Times report on Cash Patel's takeover of the FBI. The overall picture is of Patel being much more focused on image and looking cool over, like, everything else. So here's what Kale staff, a former cyber special agent, said of the FBI's involvement in immigration operations.
- [32:30]
Mike Rothschild
The immigration push grew immensely and it grew fast. Leadership was like, like, this isn't going away and all of you will now participate. HQ informed our field offices that the agents out with ICE needed to be taking pictures so they could post them to social media. I had never been asked to do that during an arrest operation before. It's inappropriate and tactically unsound.
- [32:51]
Travis View
You know, this is just interesting because, like, they're basically the recruiting, like all of their, like, agents on the ground to be content creators. Everyone has to have their phone out, like taking pictures and making videos so it can be funneled to their social social media teams for editing and you know, I guess, like narrative promotion.
- [33:11]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, this is what they were doing in la in back in, I guess May or June when they sent hundreds of immigration guys and border patrol guys to MacArthur park to, to make large scale crackdowns and they arrested like a guy selling tamales. There was nobody there. They just needed TikTok videos of like guys looking off into the distance, you know, with their like, triggered discipline and looking tough. It is pure show. They're not, they're just trying to look like they're doing something because President Trump likes to see that.
- [33:45]
Travis View
I mean, like, yeah, I mean like, this is, I think, yeah, a byproduct of like, you know, Trump being like such a, you know, a carnival act and the showman and so focused on media fucking watching television hours and hours every single day. Because everything becomes like, you know, like narrative and image. Image first and like, you know, the more technical things about like how to actually, you know, execute what they want to do become secondary.
- [34:09]
Mike Rothschild
Right. I mean, the guy who shot Renee Good, he had his phone in his hand the entire time. He's live. He's videoing himself shooting her. I mean, this is like not what law enforcement is supposed to do. Yeah, it's insane.
- [34:24]
Jake
I saw a, Like, a quote on Red. I'm sure it's, like, making its way on Twitter and stuff. It's like a pretty obvious. And it's just like, one of those things that, like, it's like a quote from, like, the 1930s, like, basically World War II. That makes you go like, oh, no, this is exactly what's happening. But it was a woman, basically, who said, like, it wasn't the Nazis that, like, came for us. It was, like, the shoemaker and, like, Taylor and Cameron. I'm paraphrasing, but it's like, basically people from my community who were, like, given a uniform and a gun and a badge and, like, you know, like, sent out into the streets for, like, retribution. And, like, that's what really. I mean, if you put everything together, and we've talked about it a ton on. On. On the show, obviously the sort of, like, vintage propaganda campaign that they did for ice, the signing bonus, basically saying, you know, offering people, hey, if you're, like, destitute and, like, and violent, like, you can get, like, a ton of money, like, very quickly, be deputized, become a federal agent. You know, if I'm, like, some, like, destitute, like, piece of shit, like, I don't know, living in a fucking van, like, down by the river, I got nothing going on and, like, maybe even, like, near death. And I'm racist, too. And I see. I'm scrolling at night and I see, like, $50,000 to, like, go and murder people. I would, like, get my life together so that I would go and get in shape so that I could sign up for that agency. Like, I think, like, there are people who are so motivated by that, like, easy money, chance to kill people.
- [35:52]
Mike Rothschild
Like, be tough, tough. Get some gear, you know, have some swagger.
- [35:57]
Jake
Bring your own. Bring your. From home.
- [35:59]
Mike Rothschild
Yep. Just wear your jeans and. And your. Your vest. You know, we'll give you some. We give you six weeks of training. I just go. Go out there. Like, you saw that with pretty. These guys didn't know how. I mean, I don't think they were arresting him, but they didn't even know how to detain him. They're just. This is like Putin and. And the Russian army in Ukraine right now. They're just like, here's some money, here's a gun. Go over there and kill some people. And it's. It's how far we have fallen and how far we still have to fall.
- [36:31]
Travis View
In that New York Times piece, there was also one anonymous senior executive that complained that cash is far More invested in having a good time than doing his job.
- [36:42]
Jake
Every May, there's a five eyes conference with the head of every intelligence agency. This year it was in the uk. Kash Patel is going in the lead up to that. His detail starts making crazy requests. He's got special requirements on everything and the Brits are getting pissed. Before the conference, his staff says he's unhappy because he doesn't like meetings in office settings. What he wants is social events. He wants premier soccer games. He wants to go jet skiing. He'd like a helicopter tour. I think Kash Patel should go on as many helicopter rides as possible. Cash, if you're listening, I've never ridden on a helicopter, but I've watched videos and man, it basically the funnest thing you could do every day if you can get smaller. Whatever the weather is, doesn't matter what the weather is. Just, yeah, I would encourage him to lean into that hobby. Everyone who heard about this was like, hold on, is he really going to ask the MI5 director to go jet skiing instead of meeting? The schedule is set and every five eyes partner is doing this. They can't just say that he's not participating and instead he wants to go to a premier soccer game. This is a job, guys. His staff only cared about three things. What his meals were, when his workouts would be, and what his entertainment would be. The biggest plan is how he's. What his entertainment will be. How do we keep big boy happy?
- [38:01]
Mike Rothschild
Oh, we gotta, gotta keep him distracted.
- [38:04]
Jake
Oh, no. Oh, he's dropped his lolly. The biggest plan is how he's going to get his girlfriend in there so she can go to Windsor Castle. He's got Nicole Rucker as his assistant, like a true executive concierge. And when she's not getting the food or the workout she wants, she'll just start screaming at people. Make it happen.
- [38:25]
Travis View
This is why, like Dan Bongino, I think, couldn't hack it as deputy FBI director and like quit because like he got in there and it's like he thought it was like, I'm gonna be in there, I'm gonna, I can be a badass. I'm gonna like arrest the bad guys. I'm going to like release all these secret files and everyone's gonna love me. Everyone's gonna, everyone's gonna know that, like, you know, I wasn't bullshitting about everything I was talking about on the podcast we got in there. It's like his a grind, obviously. Obviously a high level government job, if you're doing it Right. Should be a fucking grind. Yeah. And he got so sick of it, he quit, went back to podcasting.
- [38:59]
Jake
He was so happy to be back.
- [39:00]
Mike Rothschild
Oh, he was. He was so happy. Look. And I said this when Patel and Bongino were nominated. A podcaster running the FBI is a podcaster running the FBI. These guys never left the influencer hustle behind. I think Bongino probably was just like, I can't balance the grift and the job.
- [39:19]
Jake
Job.
- [39:20]
Mike Rothschild
The job's too hard. I'm just going to go back to the grift. And Patel's like, I'm going to. I'm going to lean into it. I'm getting my jet ski. I'm going to go see Manchester United on taxpayer dollars. This is. This is the dream. I mean, yeah, I mean, Patel is just a higher achiever, I think, also.
- [39:35]
Travis View
Because, like, the director of the FBI gets nicer perks than the mere deputy director. So it's like, oh, he can make it tolerable by, like, you know, taking the FBI, playing wherever he wants, seeing his girlfriend impressing people. But. But Bongino was like, yeah, he was like a lieutenant. Second command just was not worth it for him.
- [39:52]
Jake
Now.
- [39:52]
Mike Rothschild
Now he could only go to Premier league cricket games. Just, you know, it's not going to fly.
- [39:57]
Jake
They, like, sat him down in the, you know, in, like, the comfy leather chair or whatever, and they were like, all right, Mr. Bongener, here is your work computer. And if you open this, that's the FBI slack. So that's where everybody's kind of on. And, you know, there's this. You know, that's where a lot of the work is gonna take place. And he opened it. It was like, you know, all the horrible, like, slack sounds, and they were like, oh, Mr. Bongino. Like, here's like, 10 pounds of, like, manila folders. You have to, like, go through and, like, check these boxes and, like, fill it out and sign. Like, that's my fantasy, is that they got him into this situation. It was just like, a bunch of, like, paperwork and, like, just kind of like. Like, zoom meetings and just, like, kind of like shit he had to go to. They were like, oh, well, yeah, you actually, like, have to go. Go fly here to this secure location to, like, sign this. Because, like, we. We, like, our system is, like, ancient. Like, our government is totally dysfunctional. And he's like, oh, but, like, I don't want to go there. Like, I don't. Even on a private jet. I want to own lives. Like, sometimes I don't even want to go to fucking Ralph's. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to, like, you know, and, yeah, I think that as much as I dislike the agency, there's probably, like, a lot of work to be done done for somebody at the very top of it. I don't. It's not like, you know, a Hollywood director where you just kind of get to sit in a chair and tell people what to do.
- [41:16]
Mike Rothschild
No, you're not the one who delegates. You're the one who gets delegated to. And I think for somebody like Bongino, like, that's. That's not going to fly.
- [41:23]
Jake
They're like, all right, Bongino. They're like, here are the, like, most wanted people in the FBI that we've been looking on like that. Like, you know, we've got open cases, and you need to sort of, like, pick up these cases. And it's all like, right, Wings, kind of like this guy. It's like, all guys who would listen to his show.
- [41:37]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah. Here's the. Here's the ten most wanted. Mr. Bud. Yeah, I'm gonna get to Crocomads. We just need you to update their contact information.
- [41:45]
Jake
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're like, yeah, we have, like, all. We have, like, some pretty serious, like, credit card fraud. Like, just like, shit. That's, like, so boring.
- [41:54]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
Yeah.
- [41:55]
Travis View
In that New York Times piece, here's that senior executive explaining how Cash Patel and Don Ba Gino responded after being briefed on in.
- [42:03]
Jake
Whenever there's a critical incident, one of the first things that happens is a conference call with everybody, all the executives. Most of the field offices dial in. The director rarely speaks because someone with situational awareness is leading the call. They'll say, here's what happened. Here's what we know. Here's what we need. But we get on, and it's just Cash berating the special agent in charge in Salt Lake. He's super emotional. Then it turns surreal. He and Bongino start talking about their Twitter strategy, and Cash is like, I'm gonna tweet this, Salt Lake. You tweet this that, Dan. You come in with this, and then I'll come back with this. They're literally scripting out their social media, not talking about how we're going to respond or resources or the situation. He's screaming that he wants to put stuff out, but it's not even vetted yet. It's not even accurate. When I was an agent, I did hundreds of these cases. The initial information that comes in is Always wrong. There's too much coming in, and it takes time to vet. And it was obvious that Cash can't understand that and doesn't want to understand that everyone on the call is just like, this guy is completely out of control. On another call, he said, when a crisis happens, the only thing you need to do is call me. The most important thing in any crisis is controlling the narrative. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. We actually have to do some work here. We're going to have to investigate to solve this. Man, these guys are such boners. If I, you know, whatever. I, you know, my fan. I have, like, of course, like, a little bit of a fantasy of being, like, the lead detective, like, solving the case. Who doesn't like a mystery to try to uncover? You know, I would at least be like, okay, cool. Like, all right. Like, this is interesting. Like, I'm svu, you know, I'm all. My favorite television shows, whatever. But these guys got in there and they, like. They were like, oh, awesome. Like, okay, let's figure out what we're gonna tweet.
- [43:45]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah.
- [43:45]
Travis View
Yeah. It's made me think that, like, you know, there's a situation in which, like, you know, like, Jake and Logan Paul might be elected to, like, high level in the government soon. If this is what matters. Matters. If this is what, like, what, like, actually gets people in, as it seems to be the case right now, then, yeah, like, the only thing that really matters is, like, yeah, just narrative and, like, a spectacle and, yeah, social media strategy. It sounds like this is the first thing when they got, like, this important, like, preliminary information was like, oh, cool. Something. Something cool to tweet about. So we can not, like, not, like, okay, how much manpower. Is there anything more we could do to vet the information? Nothing about, like, you know, taking care of the, you know, what needs to be done. That day in the room, it was all about, like, you okay, this. This will be a banger on Twitter.
- [44:29]
Mike Rothschild
Well, and Cash going public that a suspect had been arrested in the Charlie Kirk shooting. And then having to backtrack and then they. I mean, it's like, no one can have any confidence that any of these people know what they're doing. And, you know, I think about that kind of pre 911 environment where it was just like all this stuff was happening, and we were so incredibly vulnerable, and we didn't. We didn't even know how vulnerable we were until the worst possible thing happened.
- [44:55]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
And you just.
- [44:56]
Mike Rothschild
Just, like, right now, who is plotting to do what? And do we have any idea that it is going to happen. And I just don't think we can have any confidence that, that anybody knows what might happen.
- [45:07]
Travis View
You know, I mean, I keep thinking about something else was mentioned is about how like one FBI agent like resigned and they were in charge of essentially investigating neo Nazi cells. I remember in the years past there have been incidents in which organized accelerationist Nazis planned attacks on infrastructure like electrical plans and miraculously caught and stopped by the FBI. I mean I feel like there's really no guarantee that that kind of thing is going to happen in the future. I feel like they have organized Nazis now who really want to do serious damage to like innocent people in order to accelerate towards their, the race war they imagine is going to happen. I feel much more emboldened and less, less, less monitored than they were in years past.
- [45:50]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, you know, the people that I worry about in terms of committing some sort of act of extremism, it's not the big influencers, you know, because those people, they're too afraid to lose their livelihoods by actually taking up arms. It's the guys that we've never heard of. It's, it's the guy with five followers on Twitter who has been posting non stop insanity but nobody ever sees it. Those are the people who often turn out to be the shooters or the bombing suspects. It's like it's not the really high profile ones. It's not the patriot front guys jumping out of the U haul with their little shields. It's the one you've never heard of who know who. Now no one is watching watching because the people who are involved in federal law enforcement are too busy making sure that Kash Patel has enough, you know, jet ski fuel and free weights. I mean we're just in such a bad, dangerous place.
- [46:39]
Jake
Yeah.
- [46:40]
Travis View
I'd like to end with an update from Candace Owens. Now she is someone who has built a multibillion dollar media empire on the back of like batshit claims. I mean I feel, I really think she's like the highest profile name in independent conspiracy media right now. Now these claims include like the, the ludicrous idea that the French first lady Bridgette Macron is secretly a trans woman, which she is currently facing a major lawsuit over. Recently, Owens has expanded on her claims regarding Charlie Kirk. According to Owens, Charlie Kirk was a time traveler who was followed by mysterious agents who understood his power.
- [47:16]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
Why did Charlie think he was a time traveler? He said, as I showed you in earlier messages, that he was a time traveler and he had to find, to me is that just something people are saying to their homies and text messages. It's entirely plausible, I think, plausible that they knew something about Charlie and that's why they had him marked and had him monitored and had him likely followed since he was young. And maybe they thought, like, the agents think that if they swarmed him and they stayed with him and they pretend to be his friend, that ultimately they could control Charlie and. And perhaps change ain't an outcome outcome. They could literally change an outcome related to Charlie.
- [47:53]
Travis View
The whole thing about, like, yeah, he is a. Is like, he said he was a time traveler, had come to find her. It also led to people increasing the amount of speculation that Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk had some sort of relationship that was more than professional.
- [48:06]
Jake
Oh, yeah, man. I'm like, is this like a mental health thing? Or is, like, she a true believer or is it like a grift and she's like Mr. Beast for conspiracy theorists, where she's like. When I say time traveler or when I go like. When I mentioned, like, these kind of theories, I noticed that we're getting an increased watch rate of, like, this much. So I'm going to follow that and just make as much money as possible because I'm totally cynical and I'm, you know, just going to generate as much cash because this is so fucking easy. I wish I wouldn't have to fucking fact check. I mean, I just had to edit something out of the show live that I got wrong while I was talking, like, just a minute ago. You're not going to hear it because it's edited out because I was wrong. But I embarrassed myself in front of Travis and Mike.
- [48:48]
Mike Rothschild
I.
- [48:48]
Jake
That's fine, you know, like, you know, it's. I'm okay with that. But like, God, it would be so nice to just sit here and be like, well, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually the Terminator. And like, that is one of Elon's robots that got sent back through Tom Cruise's also one. Yet, like, I would love to just be able to sit behind a computer with a sticker over the apple and tell people like, whatever, you know, whatever the fuck I want. Wanted to. You know.
- [49:14]
Mike Rothschild
It used to be that the street corner raving was people who were genuinely unwell. And the problem is that the street corner raving is now so mainstream that it. And delivered by people who are very good and very charismatic and smooth at delivering it. You can't tell if it's mental unwellness, if it's a grift, if it's Some, some of one, some of the other, if it's all of them. And now I'm mean, we've seen these, you know, these right wing influencers turning their backs on decades of their own beliefs and it makes it impossible to determine. Does she actually think Charlie Kirk was a time traveler or does she just think my audience is so dumb they will believe anything that I say and it makes me more money. So of course I'm going to say it because it doesn't matter what I say.
- [50:02]
Jake
Yeah. Is she, is she just like laughing? You know, there are like some content creators out there who just fucking despise their audience. They despise their fans and they like put out music to like spite them or you know, or put content out to spite them or whatever. And like. Yeah, I mean part of me is like, I wonder, is she that, you know, is she that cynical? And if she's making, what did you say, Travis? 10 million a year according to one report.
- [50:26]
Travis View
Yeah, she's making about $10 million a year on this venture.
- [50:30]
Mike Rothschild
I would believe it. I would believe it.
- [50:31]
Jake
You know, and maybe this is just because like I don't, I've never sort of like under, you know, like stood this kind of wealth but like beyond like I don't know know, $10 million, what do you really, I mean, I don't know, like if, if I were her and I made like $10 million in a year talking about like UFOs and like time trout, whatever, I'd be like, I gotta like cut, cut out right now while I'm on top.
- [50:55]
Mike Rothschild
No, they never, they never do though, because it's, it's always about, well, I can get to 15, I can get to 20, then I can, you know, get, I can get a cabinet position with, with the president. Like it's, it's never enough.
- [51:06]
Jake
You can't see, you can't see it right now, listeners, but I've got the thousand yard stare.
- [51:11]
Travis View
But like on top of this, Candace Owens husband is George Farmer, who's like a tech CEO, a former CEO of Parlor Parliament Technologies is the son of another wealthy businessman named Baron Farmer. So she doesn't have to work at all if she didn't want to.
- [51:28]
Jake
Oh, she's, she's just having fun or she's sick or she's just like really cynical. And it's like a big, it's a, you know, it's like George Carlin said, it's a big club and you're not in it, you know, and who fudgeing cares? Like Honestly, who fudgeing cares? Like she's going to keep put. There's going to be an audience for it. She's going to create content. Like people want to watch that show.
- [51:48]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah. And they do.
- [51:49]
Travis View
Yeah. According to Owens, this whole thing about Charlie Kirk being a time traveler is related to the entirely fictional Deep State program. Project Looking Glass.
- [51:58]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
CIA's project Looking Glass. Essentially there were these whistleblowers, like I told you, in the military. Military and within the CIA apparatus that came forward to reveal that the Deep State had a technology which they stole. Of course. Please do not miss the part that I keep explaining to you. These people are not smarter than you. They're not, they're just more evil. They steal, they plunder and they steal things and then they rewrite history and pretend that they were geniuses anyways. They have a knack for murder, they have a knack for theft. And this time, just like a lot of times before, they stole a device from the ancient Sumerian civilization that's located in modern, modern day Iraq. Very advanced civilization. They're obsessed also with Egyptian civilization. As we discussed yesterday, the Satanists kind of taking and reintroducing these things. First they keep them to themselves, they hoard these things and then they kind of give us certain aspects of technology as time goes on. So they steal this piece of technology and they incorporate it into a computer and suddenly they're apparently able to predict future outcomes. Just imagine the Deep State being able to look into a glass, so to speak. The Sumerian culture was known for their, their advancement in glass and to see different outcomes. I mean the amount of power that you would have and then also fathom in your mind that the people that.
- [53:19]
Jake
Are Satanists have Venkman Shankman. I'm afraid we might be dealing with a piece of Sumerian technology capable of transporting people hundreds of years into the future.
- [53:29]
Travis View
I remember like reading about Project Looking glass on like 4chan and stuff and it was like it was always portrayed with these, these like really janky images and memes and it was like it was real. It was like, oh, this is some real mind bending bullshit insanity from the depths of the Internet. And now it's being portrayed in this expensive studio with this, this, these mics and makeup and like she has a whole team behind her in order to present her that was presented in like these high production settings.
- [53:58]
Mike Rothschild
And you know, speaking of stealing the stuff she's talking about, that's, that's not something she discovered. I mean she sounds like any number of like coast to coast AM guests from the mid-90s. I mean, the. The ancient Egyptian, you know, conspiracy. That's like Richard C. Hoagland on Art Bell talking about the Face on Mars. All. All the. Yeah, the Project Looking Glass stuff. I mean, it's been around for decades. None of this is new. But the people who like the wine moms listening to Candace Owens while they pop another Valium and wait for their kids to be dropped off, they've never heard this stuff where it all sounds brand new to them. It's like, oh, this is forbidden. We're not supposed to know about this. She's telling us things that the powers that be don't want us to hear about. This stuff's been around for decades, and it was all like, Looney Tunes late night radio stuff. And now, yeah, it's presented in these flashy, heavily edited videos. Watching that video, it's like watching an anxiety attack with the quick cuts and the, like, the bouncing fonts and, like, it's just. It's like, hypnotic and, like, bizarre and compelling. And she knows what she's doing, and she's really good at it.
- [55:09]
Jake
Mike, that's such a good point. If I'm a mom and I'm home alone and I'm drunk and I'm watching and I watch Candace Owens video because, like, I don't know, somebod sent me a link. They're like, hey, hey, have you ever heard of Candace's stuff? She's a little bit out there. I'll bet that's how the other mom's introduced. She's a little out there.
- [55:29]
Mike Rothschild
I don't agree with everything she says.
- [55:30]
Jake
I don't agree with everything she says, but there's some interesting stuff about Charlie Kirk in here. And I'm like, hmm, I'm bored, I'm drunk. I'm gonna watch a little bit of YouTube and I click on the show and I watch it. I'm like, looking Glass. Like, that sounds so made up. Like, that sounds like some Alice in Wonderland shit. I'm gonna Google it. And then you Google Project Looking Glass. You go, wait a minute, there' more stuff here. Wait, there's so much other content here. It's really smart to build, like, to repackage old conspiracy IP to a generation that, like, is pilled and is ready to be more pilled. But, like, they don't know all the fun shit that, like, used to be apolitical. Like, when we were looking at it online in, like, 2008.
- [56:16]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah, no, it's exactly what happened with Planet Pandemic. During the first month of lockdown. The exact same thing. People with too much time on their hands in the middle of the afternoon get sent some video and it's like, oh, this. This sounds like it could be plausible. This is interesting. I want to hear more about this. This is like how you radicalize people in. In an hour.
- [56:38]
Travis View
So, Mike, any. Any other thoughts about the state of conspiracism and generally in 2020?
- [56:46]
Mike Rothschild
I just like going back to when I started writing about this stuff over a decade ago. I'm just stunned that we are where we are. I mean, this stuff has always had kind of mainstream adherence, and it's always bubbled up in these little spurts of popularity. But never, never like this. Never with this kind of codified mainstream industry, with major politicians and major celebrities pushing this stuff. We're so far past where we were being shepherded by people who have absolutely no belief system or morality other than make money and own libs. I've been thinking a lot about Bill Cooper lately, and for as much of a racist and wife beater and lunatic as Bill Cooper was the author of Behold a Pale Horse, he had brave principles. Like, I think that if Bill Cooper saw a video of half a dozen ICE guys disarming and executing a citizen, I think he'd be pretty pissed about it.
- [57:49]
Travis View
Well, wasn't Bill Cooper himself felled by federal agents?
- [57:53]
Mike Rothschild
That's exactly right. He was shot by sheriff's deputies two months after 9, 11. I mean, like, like the guy walked the walk, you know, And I'm just like, have we, have we gone past the point where anyone, anyone actually believes in this stuff other than the most unbalanced people who will act on it. It's just like, we're in such a bad place, and the place is not going to get any better until Trump is out of the picture. And then I. God knows what's going to happen.
- [58:23]
Jake
Yeah, I think so too, Mike. I think that nobody knows what to do until. Until he passes. Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's no other way to say it than that.
- [58:35]
Mike Rothschild
No.
- [58:36]
Jake
And I'm curious how it's going to. To go down, because there will no doubt be a lot of conspiracies swirling around it. And it's funny, you know what I don't see a ton of anymore on Twitter are, like, those memes of Trump, like, totally ripped and, like, sitting in a tank. I've seen less and less and less of those. And I'm wondering if it's because, like, the cognitive dissonance Gap is so wide that like they're like feeling feels like I'm kind of like gassing myself up. If I'm doing those kind of means, I'm going to go like more hardcore into like Nazi shit.
- [59:10]
Mike Rothschild
Yeah. You can't realistically project Trump as like Rambo when he's struggling to go up a flight of stairs and he's like covered in bruises and he talks about how much aspirin he takes. Now his staff does it. Actually just today on the day we're recording this, there's a big, I think it's Washington Post story. I don't think maybe it's not the Washington Post, I can't remember, but about Trump's health. And somebody interviews is New York magazine and they interview his, his doctors and they're like, he is in the most amazing health you will ever see. He has the EKG of a 65 year old man. He's healthier than Obama. He sleeps two hours a night. And you're just like, you can tell they're working so hard to keep this facade up because it's so obvious that he is declining. And decline doesn't get better. It only goes one way. And we've got three years left of this guy in office. And I just, I mean, once it happens, it happens hard and fast and no amount of boot licking can cover it up.
- [60:14]
Jake
I wonder if we're going to be in like a Benjamin Button scenario where Trump just kind of gets smaller and smaller and smaller and, and then becomes a child himself. And we sort of have this boy king for a little while, but then smaller and smaller and finally, you know, finally he's just like a baby. Like a baby. And then, you know, and then he dies. You guys think that that's maybe one.
- [60:40]
Mike Rothschild
Day, one day we will wake up, check our phones and it will have happened.
- [60:45]
Jake
Yeah, yeah, it is, it's, it is. Well, we will, God willing, we will outlive this man. And you bring up a good point, Mike. Like, that is really when we will see how much of this sticks and if we're able to course correct. I really don't know the answer to that. But I'll say this, I feel a little bit bad for criticizing Alex Garland's Civil War movie so heavily because I was like, California and Texas would never, ever band together. I was like, they wouldn't. That just like wouldn't fucking happen. But I've seen like all of these, like a lot of my liberal friends are like arming up and they're like, yeah, I'M getting fucking serious about this. And I was like, well, if, like, the government forces were ice, like, because in civil war, they beat the guy. They beat the, you know, the sort of fascist government forces that Nick Offerman is, like, controlling. Like, yeah, pretty easily. I mean, like, the movie is basically kind of about the final push to take back the White House. And I do think that, like, if trained law enforcement, national guards people, and your average sort of living, like, band together against ice, then, like, an Alex Garland situation is actually. It does feel a little bit more plausible. And I think we would whoop their asses just like in the movie.
- [62:04]
Mike Rothschild
Oh, totally. Once the actual soldiers get involved and not, like, the ICE guys in jeans and, like, tactical vests, it's over.
- [62:13]
Jake
These guys who can't even take one guy to the ground, it's a fucking disgrace. I had a lot of experience this past week, like, in an icu, and the staff there is, like, everything. Like, they. They're everything. If you have really good ones and. Yeah, man. Yeah. Like, this guy, like, what was he doing? You know, I just. I feel like we're. We're. We're. We're reaching a point of no return, and it feels, like, kind of hopeless to, like, podcast right now in some ways, and. Fuck, I will. You know, I. I don't know if you guys feel the same, but, like, do you have, you know, Mike, is there anything that, you know that does give you hope or something that, you know, that sort of keeps you from spiraling, like I seem to be doing currently?
- [63:00]
Mike Rothschild
You know, the thing that gives me hope is that the footage of Renee Goode and now Alex Preddy, it is breaking through to the people who have checked out of politics, because I think a lot of people have checked out of politics. It's so toxic, and it's so bad. I think it's like playing. I was at Burbank Airport this weekend for a flight that I didn't end up taking.
- [63:22]
Jake
Yeah.
- [63:22]
Mike Rothschild
And the footage of Preddy's shooting was playing in the terminal, and, like, people were watching it. And I think if you just see it and you're watching ICE disarm and execute this man who's done nothing wrong. I think it stays with you, and I think you realize that you don't want that, and you share it with people and you talk about it, and maybe it encourages you. You to do something, to volunteer. I mean, maybe, if nothing else, to vote. I think it's breaking through to people in a way that sort of the constant churn, especially Trump's first term. Like the constant churn of like palace intrigue and special counsels and who's getting fired today and who's the FBI. That stuff just didn't break through to people. It didn't end up meaning much. But I think you watch people like being killed for no reason by federal agents and it does stick with you and it makes you say, I don't like that and I'm going to do something about it.
- [64:16]
Jake
Yeah. Yeah. Well said. Thank you, Mike. Where can people find more of your work?
- [64:20]
Mike Rothschild
I'm on Twitter and Bluesky RothchildMD. I'm posting more subscriber only stuff on my Patreon. It's patreon.com mikerothchild working on some other projects and just sort of out and about trying to document and bring a little bit of context and humor to this horrible situation.
- [64:41]
Jake
We're going through big time, bud. We're grateful to have you, man. Thanks again for coming on as always.
- [64:47]
Mike Rothschild
Always, Anytime. Anytime.
- [64:49]
Jake
Guys, thanks for listening to another episode of the QAA podcast. You can go to patreon.comqaa and get a whole second premium episode for every free episode that we put out. We've got also got a website that is qaapodcast.com listener until next week.
- [65:08]
Mike Rothschild
May the deep dish bless you and keep you.
- [65:16]
Sam
We have auto queued content based on your preferences.
- [65:21]
Narrator/Documentary Voice
So what exactly did Project Looking Glass revealed? And why was it quietly shut down? The people involved began noticing noticing something strange. No matter what variables they used, the results kept showing the same future. A point where all possible timelines seemed to merge. That moment, somewhere between 2012 and 2016. After that, everything became unclear, like the future couldn't be red anymore. This brings us back to 1999, a year that might have marked more than just the turn of a century. It's also when the Matrix was released. At the time, it was seen as just another sci fi movie. But looking back, it feels like something more.
- [66:00]
Jake
You've been living in a dream world, Neo.
- [66:03]
Narrator/Documentary Voice
The film introduced a powerful idea that the world we experience might not be what it seems, but reality could be shaped or even simulated without us knowing. And once you start asking questions, things begin to change. That idea resonates deeply with what many have found felt since the early 2000s. The time feels different, but the future doesn't feel open the way it once did. Almost like things are repeating themselves. The same cycles, the same events showing up again and again. Some people even report seeing repeating numbers everywhere, like 1111, 222, 444 almost like little glitches or signals hidden in everyday life. And strangely enough, this answer idea of patterns repeating, of cycles you can't escape lines up with what Looking Glass operators allegedly encountered the sensation that the future was already written and that all paths lead to the same outcome. Fast forward to 2012. Some whistleblowers claim that a confidential briefing took place where certain agencies acknowledged the shift, a kind of convergence in human potential. This document, released by the CIA A explores consciousness as something that can move through time even outside of the physical world. It discusses remote viewing, timelines and the nature of reality itself. Now connect that to the Matrix and the overlap becomes hard to ignore. Maybe it wasn't just a movie. Maybe it was the first time the system gave us a glimpse behind the curtain. And if that's the case, what else have we been shown without realizing it?
- [67:35]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
Okay, lots unpack there. First, I'm going to say just regarding the movie the Matrix, you should look into how even the script for the Matrix was stolen, allegedly. But to bring this back to my earlier point about all these things that are happening or have happened that are seemingly inexplicable, it just lives inside of me that Charlie Kirk knew he was going to die. How? How was he so certain that he was going to die young? How is that possible? How was he even able to describe it as this tragic, tragic event? How did he know? How was he certain? By the way, as he said in those messages, that from the moment he signed onto the dotted line to begin Turning Point usa, he knew he was going to die. He knew his death was going to related to Turning Point usa. That's not a coincidence, okay? It is completely absurd to have people.
- [68:22]
Mike Rothschild
Well, I don't know, just. Oh, maybe just a coincidence.
- [68:25]
Unidentified Guest/Contributor
No, that's not a coincidence at all. Why did he know that I was going to defend him? Also, why did Charlie think he was a time traveler? Traveler? He said, as I showed you in earlier messages, that he was a time traveler and he had to find me. Is that just something people are saying to their homies in text messages? And again, not anything that I. I would have placed so much emphasis on back when he was saying it. But it came to fruition. The other parts. He did die young. Why did he think that him dying young was necessary in order to change things? He did die young. It related Turning Point USA in some way or another. At the very least, we could all agree it's related to him speaking at a campus event for Turning Point usa. I'm totally occupied by this. I tell you, I read these messages and I'm going, what is this? What is reality, actually? And Harley died. Yes. Like I said, it was related to this organization. And I think we. We would all agree that his death and the manner that they did it changed the world in ways that I don't think we. We can fully realize, or certainly not in a way that I can articulate.