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- [00:00]
Shelley
Everyone, I want to make sure everybody has a chance to get on. Let's just make sure all the platforms have loaded. Just want to make sure everybody gets a chance to hear what I have to say today. Again, good morning, everyone. I think we're live, so I'm going to go forward. For those of you that haven't had the chance to meet me, my name is Shelley and I'd like to begin today by sharing a short clip from an interview Scott did on Real Talk with Zubi. So we're going to try this. And here we go.
- [00:39]
Sergio
What do you want your legacy to be?
- [00:43]
Scott Adams
Oh, that's really interesting. I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't. I don't think of it in those terms. I think about sort of what I can do while I'm here.
- [00:55]
Owen Gregorian
I.
- [00:57]
Scott Adams
I don't know if I ever said this publicly, but I have a. A philosophy to live my life, to have the biggest funeral. So I want people to come to my funeral because I did something for them. No other reason. Not, not because they've heard of Dilbert or something. I want people to say, you know what? I read his book, I tried his diet advice. I did something, just anything. And he made my life better. And I'm going to take that forward, you know, teach my kids and stuff. That that would be the. I want the biggest possible funeral.
- [01:37]
Owen Gregorian
Awesome, man.
- [01:38]
Sergio
Well, Scott, your work has definitely made my life better, and I know it's done the same for millions of others. I do believe in the afterlife and.
- [01:44]
Scott Adams
I hope we'll see you up there.
- [01:45]
Sergio
In a good place.
- [01:46]
Scott Adams
I'll see you there. Let's hope you're right. I'll see you there.
- [01:52]
Shelley
It was Scott's wish not to just include his closest friends and family, but to include the community he built, those he inspired, those he taught, encouraged in his celebration of life. Therefore, a live stream honoring his legacy will take place this Sunday, January 25th, roughly around 11:00am Pacific Standard Time. And now I'd like to welcome for today's show, Owen, Erica, Marcella and Sergio for the Scott Adams School.
- [02:29]
Erica
Thank you, Shelley. We also want to introduce a special guest that's joining us today. I think you'll recognize him as soon as his camera turns on.
- [02:46]
Sergio
Up.
- [02:46]
Erica
There he is.
- [02:47]
Brick Suit
I'm just waiting for the queue. I was just waiting to hear Brick Suit and then I would jump in.
- [02:51]
Erica
There he is, Brick Suit, our special guest today joining us. And so fashionable. And I feel very underdressed in my pajamas.
- [02:59]
Owen Gregorian
Sorry.
- [03:03]
Erica
So, you guys, I think we need to sip. Now, Shelly, am I sipping, or are you sipping with the video? We're trying to be fancy today, guys. We think we're going to be able to get this on screen for you. You're muted, Shelly, you're muted. There we go.
- [03:27]
Shelley
Screen.
- [03:30]
Erica
Oh, we did drop the screen. Okay. All right, we're going off one more time, guys. We'll be right back after the simultaneous sip, so get ready. Thanks, guys.
- [03:42]
Scott Adams
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to what will surely be the highlight of human civilization. Yeah, you thought it was Twitter or X, but it's not. It's not. It's this show. And if you'd like to take it up to levels that only the weekend can survive, well, all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tankard chalicerstein, a canteen jug or flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure of the dopamine of the day, the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip. It happens. Now go. Ah, that's pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. So if you're not a subscriber on Locals or on X, where you can see the Dilbert Reborn comic, but only there the series is now about the boss sending his employees onto the streets to get things for him when he lives in a city that has become dangerous. So the employees are complaining about the danger of coming to work. And he just sent Tina to get his lunch. And I'll read it to you, but it's basically Tina. She's a little unhappy talking to the boss, and she says, thanks for sending me through the gauntlet of lawlessness to pick up your lunch. I got 20,000 steps just for. I got 20,000 steps Just fleeing for my life. And the boss says, you have a Fitbit. And Tina says, I did, but now it's the property of a guy they call the midnight Crapper. So you would not have seen that when Dilbert was in newspapers. So let me say again that my. My creative revival is really fun. Every time I sit down to make the comic, now I'm enjoying it. Like, I'm looking for time. Oh, I'd love to write some comics today. Every single day for 10 years. At least 10 years prior to being canceled, I hated my job. Now, it was better than a real job because I could just sit there drawing pictures and stuff, but I didn't like it because, you know, anything you like is great until you have to do too much of it. And if you have to do a comic every single day, every day, you get tired of it after 25 years. So believe me, getting canceled was like. I swear, it was like being reborn. I call it Dilber Reborn, but it was like I was reborn because I actually love my job. So my thoughts of desperately wanting to retire, which I did prior to being canceled, I desperately wanted to retire. I just needed to find a way to do it that wasn't the way I just happened. But, man, it's good. It's good stuff.
- [06:51]
Shelley
Okay, guys, come back.
- [06:56]
Erica
Oh, I love that. We were lucky enough one afternoon. So Scott used to live stream from locals sometimes, like, in the middle of the day, we'd be so lucky. All of a sudden, Scott, you'd get the notification. We're like, what's he doing? And sometimes he would just be drawing out Dilbert cartoons even robots read. And he would, like, workshop it with us. Like, what do you think a funny name would be? Or whatever. We'd all be putting it in. And as soon as he saw the one he loved, I mean, the laughter, like, the head would go back. Like, the eyes start watering, the glasses come off, the whole thing. Oh, it was so good. But. Hi, everybody. I'm Erica. I'll let everyone introduce themselves, and then we'll get into it.
- [07:44]
Marcella
Good morning. I'm Marcella.
- [07:46]
Owen Gregorian
And I'm Owen Gregorian.
- [07:49]
Shelley
We should probably take a sip.
- [07:50]
Erica
Oh. Oh, all right. Did you guys sip? I didn't get to sip with y'.
- [07:54]
Brick Suit
All.
- [07:54]
Erica
Okay, here we go.
- [07:56]
Brick Suit
I sipped. I'm good.
- [07:58]
Erica
Okay, good. And so. And we have Sergio. So, Brick Suit. A lot of us recognize you. I think most of us do. And I think maybe we wanted to ask you a couple of questions, too, because you've had quite a fascinating run over the years with President Trump and his campaign. And I. I don't know if I forgot this, but the group reminded me today that you were at. In Butler, Pennsylvania, that horrendous day, weren't you? What happened?
- [08:35]
Brick Suit
I was. I was there. I was. I was in the front row a rally, much like every other rally I'd been to. And the reason I had that time off was because I was actually a delegate for California for the rnc, So I was a Trump delegate planning on going to Milwaukee. And then they added the Butler rally kind of at the last minute, and I had the time off, and I just. You know, I looked at how much it would cost to restructure my ticket to go to Butler. I had a couple of reasons I wanted to go There. First of all, it was a Trump rally. Second of all, I thought there might be a VP pick. And third, there's actually a guy in the Pittsburgh area who bought a suit just like mine and would go to rallies. So I felt the need to defend my turf being that close to Pittsburgh. And, you know, so I made the decision to go there. And, you know, we all. We all know what happened. That was an incredible day.
- [09:37]
Erica
Oh, my God, I can't even imagine. I mean, just watching it, I can't imagine being there. And, you know, we've seen so many times where President Trump has brought you up on stage at a rally, shouted you out from the podium. I know Scott got a big kick out of you. You know, it's just fun. It's like this character you've created, right? And how's. How's that worked out for you?
- [10:04]
Brick Suit
Totally unexpected. Totally, totally not something I ever thought would happen. But as I'm looking down on my phone here to get a call to get up, there's a direct link, actually, between Scott and me becoming Brick Suit. Not many people know this. I just put up in my. My pin tweet. The first rally I ever went to was in Las Vegas, and I was very far back. And I thought, you know, after the rally, I went up to the people in the front, said, how early did you get here? When did you get here? And they told me the next rally I went to was in 2018 in Mesa, Arizona, for a senator candidate. I think it was Martha McSally in Arizona. And at that time, I'm on the Donald on Reddit. You know, I'm. I'm definitely tuned into Scott, and he picked up on the slogan from Reddit. Jobs, not mobs. So that got into my consciousness, and I ended up making a shirt for that. Went to the rally early in Phoenix, and then President Trump actually got a picture of me on the grounds there wearing my job's not mob shirt and tweeted that out. So the very second rally I went to, I pick up a slogan from Scott, I make a shirt, it gets a picture of me tweeted out. Because it was Twitter back then. It wasn't posted. It was a tweet tweeted out by the President. And so later, when I decided to become a human meme, it really drew a lot of inspiration from that experience, where taking a slogan out of cyberspace, out of the web, and putting it into real life and becoming a meme in real life. And that's basically why I decided to buy the Suit.
- [11:59]
Erica
You guys have questions for Bricksuit? I know you do. It's so, it's so interesting.
- [12:04]
Sergio
I do. This is an amazing honor to have a living, a legend meme, you know, with us walking. I've been to a. I was to a. I've been to a rally and I might have seen you there. Did you go to Tucson ever on 2020?
- [12:23]
Brick Suit
I don't think I went to Tucson in 2020, but I went there in 2024. There was a rally at the Linda Ronstadt center that I went to.
- [12:31]
Sergio
Okay. There was an impostor taking a. So, no, but the beautiful lesson here that you give us break to Mr. Bricksut is that you are telling us that with that effort that you did to stand out, you got the attention, which is the number one rule in persuasion to get attention. Right. Scott told us that. And you got the attention of the President to make you into not just like one dimensional meme, but a three dimensional meme that is multiplying, that is taking videos, that is spreading everywhere like that. And that's what a meme is, you know, we're all memes, basically. Every person is a living meme in a way. Some are, you know, more proliferated than others. But this is wonderful to have you here and show us what it can be done, you know.
- [13:27]
Brick Suit
Well, actually, that's kind of, that's kind of what actually happened is because, you know, basically my motivation at the beginning was get to the rallies early so that I could be up near the front because I wanted to be there. But then when I had the very third, the third rally I ever went to, I bought this because I had two extra days in D.C. i had a trip planned back east. I was flying into D.C. and I wanted something to be able to trigger the leftists. So I bought the whole suit. And the day before I left my home in San Diego, President Trump announced a rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania. I was able to go to that rally. I got there at midnight. I was third in line. I ended up in the front row and that's where he first called me up on stage. And so then as I began to go to route back to rallies, you know, I would get up near the front and this is 2020, this is, you know, there's a lot of press coverage at that time. And it became apparent to me, like I will say this, the first time I ever gave an interview, I was terrible at it. It was not a talent that I had. It wasn't something I was able to do well. As I did more of them, I got better. And from a. From, I guess, a very selfish perspective, I realized that I had done so many of these interviews that I was actually better at articulating whatever it was the administration was trying to convey at that point in time. So I felt like if I get there early and I wear this suit, the media will come to me because they're going to assume that I'm just some fool dressed up like a clown. And then I can give them sound bites that the Trump team is actually putting out there and trying to emphasize in that given time frame. So I was kind of like, you know, I was under the radar to the media at that point. They had no idea who I was. I would show up. They didn't. They didn't really know who I was, except he's a guy that had been on stage twice, and I was able to get the message out.
- [15:20]
Sergio
Very useful. You became a useful person, not just an entertainment.
- [15:25]
Owen Gregorian
What made you want to do this?
- [15:28]
Brick Suit
You know, what made me want to do this is a really good question. It stems back. I. First of all, I voted for Reagan in 84, and then that was the last election I ever voted in until 2020. Okay. So I was completely divorced from the political realm. Wasn't even registered in 2016. Did not even think that President Trump would be a value, you know, a viable presidential choice. Hated Hillary, didn't want her to win. So certainly on board with President Trump in that way. But then he gets in office and he really starts doing what he says he's going to do. And as I said earlier, I'm really tied up in the Donald discord at this time. And then in 2018, we saw the purge from social media of a lot of voices. We saw, you know, Alex Jones is gone. I mean, YouTube pages were canceled, Facebook profiles gone, Twitter pages gone. And just a lot of names went off, off the radar then. And I figured at that point in time, if you can't have free speech on the Internet, I'm going to bring it back to real life. And I ordered my first Make America Great Again hat, and I started going out in San Diego to farmers markets and baseball games and golf tournaments, wearing a Trump hat in 2018, at a time when it was not very popular, and it was really doing that was really just driven by, you know, my experience at that first rally and how effective it can be to take something out of the realm where it's normally seen and then take it into real life. And that was kind of how I got the inspiration to make the suit, because I'd already been doing that with just a very simple hat I would keep in my car and put on when I went about my daily business in San Diego.
- [17:19]
Owen Gregorian
And how did you find the suit? Did you have to have it custom tailored or was there someone actually selling the suit?
- [17:25]
Brick Suit
The suit is actually made. It's an off the rack suit. It's called a stag suit. It's from England. And apparently unlike an American bachelor party, when they have these in in England, all the lads will order similar clothing so they can be identified in the group. So they behave much like an American bachelorette party would in terms of their apparel. Now couple that with the best clubs in London having a dress code that the men have to wear suits. There became this cottage industry for semi disposable, cheap polyester suits and very loud patterns for this type of bachelor party. And so they have like rocket ships and skies and thunder and, you know, like lightning bolts. And one of the ones they just had was a brick wall. And when I did my initial suit for something to trip, my initial search for something to trigger leftists, when I went to dc, I'm thinking, what do I do? Like taxes? No. How do I get a border shirt? What about a wall suit? And I searched for wall suit. This came up and I, you know, I ordered it and it's the best 80 bucks I ever spent.
- [18:35]
Owen Gregorian
Nice.
- [18:37]
Erica
I love that. It's kind of like when I was saying with Sergio. So Sergio has taught this group how to easily make memes using ChatGPT. And so now we have all these meme warriors. And it's kind of like what you're doing, saying you're a living meme because you're not saying anything. You're just putting a visual out there for interpretation. So I see it and I laugh and maybe my neighbor would cry. So you didn't say anything. It's like it's your reaction. I love that. Marcel or Owen, sorry I cut you off.
- [19:13]
Marcella
Hi, Bricksud. I'm also a fellow Californian, so I wanted to ask you two questions. One is, how is it living in California? It's very hard. I personally know, being a Trump supporter since 2015, how hard it is to be a supporter. Have you had any issues with either the government or people?
- [19:41]
Brick Suit
Oh, well, I had some gentlemen from the FBI come and visit me, you know, at my workplace in early 2021. So I had that issue. But I think the main question you might be asking is about have I had any blowback from my public support of the President. And I can, I can tell you this. When you're an undercover Trump supporter and nobody knows it, and then you go to a rally and the President calls you up on stage, and two days later you're on Fox and Friends and then you come back to work, the secret is kind of out. You know, when you get doxed by the President in that way, you know, you have to make a decision. And I decided to roll with it. Now, my former employer cannot say enough good things about them. No issues from, from management. I worked in a facility where there were approximately 300 employees. So as you can imagine, there were some in there who just despised me, some who just were just really thought it was cool. A lot of low key acknowledgment. And then there were people who were just like, you know, I don't really like the President, but it's cool what happened. So, you know, there were people, there was all sorts of range there. So absolutely, yes, I did get blowback, but it certainly, because of the company I worked for, you know, it was not as bad as it could have been. I was never at risk of losing my job. It was just made clear, you know, don't do politics at work and we're golden. And so I abided by that rule.
- [21:14]
Marcella
The, the other question came from someone on locals, Andy Wang, he wanted to know if you were in D.C. on January 6th, and if not, can you, can you elaborate on that?
- [21:28]
Brick Suit
Yeah, I was in D.C. in January 6th. At that time, I was working as a contractor for rsbn. RSBN actually hired me in the latter half of the campaign in 2020 to cover some rallies because they did not have enough internal staff to cover three rallies a day schedule. And they basically put the call out there. And you know, there are some other alumni from those guest host days, names that people recognize, such as Scott Pressler was one of those guest hosts. Brian Glenn now at RAV was one of those guest hosts. And, you know, I did probably about 7. So in January, I had just come from the rally in Dalton two days prior, which I attended myself, then flew into D.C. where I was slated to cover the, the segment of the rally. Basically a secondary speaker rally was going to take place near the Capitol steps after the main rally of President Trump by the White House. So I was, I was in D.C. on January 6th.
- [22:36]
Marcella
Did you, did you have any issues afterwards by the FBI or any other thing regarding January six? Because you were there?
- [22:45]
Brick Suit
I did. I did. Because an image of me actually appeared on a wanted Poster from the Metropolitan Police Department for felony assault of an officer. So they put that out there like wanted in conjunction, felony assault. I knew I had done nothing. But what they really wanted was the camera that they saw me holding. They wanted the footage. So that was kind of their way of getting in touch with me or finding out who I was. Did they get it eventually? Oh, I, I gave them the footage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gave them the footage because I had footage of the policeman, the Capitol policeman being tased in the neck. So I, I had footage of that and I didn't even know I captured it at the time. I captured it, incidentally, just because I was holding a camera up. I wasn't looking at that when it happened. But, you know, when I heard about it later and then I reviewed my footage, I said, yeah, I, I just, you know, for what? For everything that went on that day. I still think assaulting an officer with a taser to the neck is not acceptable. And of course, I did give them the footage.
- [23:57]
Erica
Yeah.
- [23:58]
Brick Suit
So, you know, when I came back to work after that, after that January, you know, shortly thereafter, I did get a visit from the FBI and it was. They were just following up in every lead. I, you know, I didn't get the impression that they were after me for anything that I'd done. It's just that they were, you know, checking names off a list, had a brief conversation with them, a little chit chat. They're playing like the good agent, bad agent, you know, so like the one guy starts off the interview and says, like, before we start, I gotta ask you, where did you get that suit? And so I tell them the story, much like I told you about how I got the suit. And then the very next question is, so on January 6th, were you in Washington D.C. and did you see anything violent at the time? Which, having learned from General Flynn, I immediately, positively invoked my fifth Amendment rights. And they politely ended the interview at that point, and I never heard from them again.
- [25:00]
Marcella
So smart.
- [25:02]
Erica
I know, right? Know your rights, you guys. Before we switch to talking about the news, which Marcella and Owen will lead us on, I see socially, Sherry on Locals asked, does Bric plan to rebrand when JD Vance runs for president?
- [25:22]
Brick Suit
No, I don't plan to rebrand. It's a really good question. You know, when I initially, first of all, when I first got pulled up on stage, I had no social media accounts. And so I had to think very hard about how to brand, first of all, to think about, do I want to do this? This is a Time when people were getting attacked in public for wearing a hat. You know, I had to think about, do I really want to make a target of myself in this climate in 2018? And so I purposely tried to pick a name that I felt was, you know, to use a term, evergreen brick suit. Emblematic of how most people remember first seeing me. It's not tied to any one specific issue, although it is a metaphor for a border wall. It is not just that. And so, no, I will not be rebranding. I will continue in America. First coverage, perspective and strong border controls is an evergreen issue. It is never going away. If there's ever another period of time where we lose control of our borders, as we did under Joe Biden, we will be again at existential risk as a country of losing everything we've built over 250 years. So, no, I will not be rebranding.
- [26:38]
Erica
If that happens, we will all buy a brick suit and join you. Thank you so much. That's so interesting to talk to someone who's been on the ground like that and your persuasion, Scott is definitely smiling about that because he's a believer in it and you do it so well. Can I toss this over to Owen and Marcella to talk about some news stories? Take a sip, you guys, in between while they're setting up. We'll take, we'll grab a sip. Okay, let's go.
- [27:11]
Marcella
Owen, you have to help me today night.
- [27:15]
Owen Gregorian
I'm happy to do it. I think we've got some good stories today, but I do want to ask a couple more questions. So, like, were you, have you been involved with the actual border issue? Actively in making a lot of these things happen? Because it seems like we've made tremendous progress in Trump's second term.
- [27:30]
Brick Suit
Have I been involved to the extent of my involvement really so far? Remember, I was holding a full time job at the time, so I would go to rallies and I viewed myself as, you know, I'm calling attention to the issue. I'm getting out press bites, sound bites beforehand during the rally. You know, I'm, I'm close enough. The President would usually see me when he comes out and then, you know, if he wanted to use me as a prop during the rally, I was there. It wasn't about, you know, it wasn't about so much about me wanting to be recognized at every rally. It's just that, you know, low key. If he wanted to be calling attention to that, I was kind of there as, as something he point to and not just as a prop, but also as A really. This is important. It's really. It's really as a proxy for all of his supporters. You know, there's another group of people who go to all the rallies, the. The front row Joe's, which I'm. I'm sure many people are familiar with. And so, you know, I. I believe that the President did like to recognize all of us on occasion because it reminds everybody out there of his supporters. And, you know, I, I. Have I been to the border directly? No. Have I covered those stories directly? No. That probably will change, though, in the coming years. I am now fully retired and looking to do some more stuff. I wasn't able to make it to Minneapolis, but I'm hoping to go to some other cities where similar operations occur in the future.
- [28:59]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah. And I. I mean, there may be more rallies coming up, too. I know there's been some talk about doing that.
- [29:05]
Brick Suit
There's one on Tuesday in Iowa, and I am trying to get there.
- [29:09]
Sergio
Hey, one. I would like to add one thing on Butler, that chart that saved the President. That chart became the most famous chart ever. I used to make Power. I was the PowerPoint guy back in corporate. And when that chart came up and President looked at it. Has anybody tried to make a suit of that chart?
- [29:33]
Brick Suit
No. There are people who are selling brick suits on Etsy right now. I mean, there's a couple people. People. I get messages about that really not something I can control. There are other people who have kind of cashed in on it, but. But I have not.
- [29:48]
Sergio
No. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Thank you.
- [29:51]
Marcella
I. Thank you. Bricks, food. Because I know you've stayed in California, and to be honest, you're a symbol for all of us that are silent, basically. Obviously not anymore for me, but there's so much support for Trump and for JD Vance and such policies, but there's lots of Californians that have to be very quiet because they'll lose their job. They'll do anything to them. And there's also the social thing of, like, oh, you like a Nazi. You like this, you like that. And I really. You are a brave man. You are absolutely a brave man. And Scott appreciated you and loved you, and I'm glad you're here with us. And thank you for. For being the symbol.
- [30:49]
Brick Suit
Well, it's. It's been my pleasure. I'm glad to be here this morning, and it's very early for me to be in the full suit, but, you know, like, maybe next time, just the hat if I ever come back. So. Yeah, you know, but probably the suit, I think it's appropriate.
- [31:04]
Erica
It's. It's your choice for sure. We. I'm reading all the feedback. Everybody's so enjoying you and what you're saying and finding you interesting. They're thanking you for your service. And there's even been a few AI upgrades on your suit with different wall patterns, so the options are endless. Yeah, I'll let Owen and Marcella take it away. Oh, Shelley.
- [31:29]
Shelley
Yeah, yeah, Just. I was going to say thank you for coming on. Scott would have loved it. Thank you.
- [31:37]
Erica
Okay, so stay with us, Bricksuit. We're going to talk some news and we'd love for you to chime in. Okay, thanks.
- [31:44]
Owen Gregorian
Well, starting off with a little science, Eric Dolan, one of Scott's favorites from Psypost is saying that maladaptive personality traits are linked to poor sleep quality in a new twin study. So apparently not getting enough sleep makes you a bad person. It says all these traits were linked to worse sleep, including negative activity, detachment, disinhibition, and psychoticism, which I guess is probably psychosis. I think this clearly falls in the category of, you could have just asked Scott. Any one of us probably would have known if you don't get enough sleep, it probably makes you grumpy and does bad things. So that's what I would expect Scott would have said on that one. Marcelo, what do you think?
- [32:34]
Marcella
Well, that's interesting. He probably would have said maybe backward signs as well. But I think it's funny because, God, I know personally got like four hours, maybe three hours of sleep a day, and he obviously didn't have any issues, so depends on how you're built. But I think. I think. I don't know what. What others would think of that I just laughed at.
- [33:03]
Erica
Scott would be like, oh, like, I hate sleeping. It's such a waste of time. Like, I could be doing things and whatever. And I'm like, oh, my go. I mean, it's so funny because I wish. I'm the world's worst sleeper ever. And I. I always laugh thinking how Scott was saying it was a waste of time. And it's just so him to just be like, I got things to do. I have ideas. And God bless.
- [33:27]
Marcella
The other thing I was thinking about, so sorry, just real quick, is that whenever Scott talked about twins, he went on a tangent about how he. It could be like, the perfect crime if you have, like. So what is it called? Like an identical twin. And it just made me laugh. Go ahead, Sergio.
- [33:49]
Sergio
All right, Owen, on that study, so they say that people that don't sleep Enough they're becoming psychos or what?
- [33:59]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, it's. Let me just get back up to it. It was, they said the personality was measured with the DSM 5, which is the thing that is, you know, basically seeing if you're mentally ill or not. And it said they focused on negative affectivity, detachment, disinhibition and psychoticism and said all traits were linked to worse sleep. Negative affectivity and detachment showed the strongest ties. So I guess that means it probably just makes you much more negative and detached if you don't get enough sleep.
- [34:35]
Brick Suit
Yeah.
- [34:36]
Sergio
Joseph Scott, quick question on that.
- [34:39]
Brick Suit
Is there, is this a correlation causation on the study? Like, is the sleep causing the issues or are the issues causing the lack of sleep?
- [34:50]
Owen Gregorian
Good question. That's exactly the backwards science that I think Marcela was getting at is that Scott would often say these studies are backwards, they're measuring the wrong thing. And you know, like there's often studies he would talk about, about like how people that, you know, go do things outside are better, you know, better off. And then he would say, well, you know, if you, if you're not healthy, you're not gonna be able to go outside. Like, it's gotta be a little backwards. So, yeah, I think this definitely could qualify for that, that maybe someone who's a psycho or is very negative might have trouble sleeping. So, yeah, you could be right.
- [35:33]
Sergio
That's the best part of those questions. Like that. That's the best part of this section of the show when Scott does it, because it teaches us all to look at the news from a different angle like that instead of just taking it from whatever they tell us. So this is right, this is the lesson.
- [35:49]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah. So getting into the politics, there's certainly a lot more controversy coming with the Minnesota protests and the church storming. Apparently there's some news that one of the people that led that storming of the church took home over a million dollars from an anti poverty nonprofit that she led. So clearly there's some vested interest there. Looks like the nonprofit gave 700,000 in grants over six years. She got like $936,000 in salary plus 200,000 in benefits. So she took more home than they gave out grants, which seems like a pattern for a lot of these NGOs that they end up just keeping most of the money. And I think the next story had to do with that as well, where Gnome is saying that there are arrests coming. I think they may have already happened now because when the story came out, it said it's going to Happen within hours. But Kristi Noem is saying they're going to be arresting these people for disrupting the church.
- [36:57]
Brick Suit
There has been one arrest so far. AG Bondi has put it out, and Harmeet Dylan has also reposted it. So one of the. Maybe the same person you were talking about, I don't know. But one of the ringleaders, a woman who was instrumental in that, I think the one who was interviewed by Don Lemon outside, has been arrested. Fingers crossed that the Lemon himself will be arrested if he's guilty. I don't want him arrested if he's not guilty. But if the evidence shows that he colluded, then that's on him.
- [37:30]
Owen Gregorian
I saw him in the church talking to the pastor. I don't know how you could say he wasn't disrupting the service.
- [37:36]
Erica
And he talked about it before even going in, like he brought coffee and donuts to these people, I think, and said, we're going somewhere. I think he's spit it out and said it was. I think he said it was a church, but he said, I can't tell you where we're going, but it's gonna happen and you're gonna see it live. So he was fully aware.
- [37:56]
Brick Suit
Yeah, but. But he's black and gay, so he must be immune, according to him at least. I mean, you know, so, yeah, there's that.
- [38:03]
Marcella
I hate to read their bad news, but the jury, even if it's federal case, which I don't. I don't. It would be a federal case if no one is. Is involved. Would be a Minnesota jury, so.
- [38:19]
Brick Suit
Correct. It would be a Minnesota jury. But importantly, it would not be from. Necessarily from Minneapolis.
- [38:25]
Marcella
True.
- [38:26]
Brick Suit
Pulled from all. All corners of the states and, you know, Minnesota outside of the outside. Look, we don't want to stack jury for our side in much the same way. We don't want a stacked jury against us. We want a fair jury. So I think that you will see that. That they will be. You know, they will make sure that it's not just a jury. Just from Minneapolis proper.
- [38:53]
Marcella
They probably would ask for the venue to change because of the prejudice that in. In Minneapolis.
- [39:01]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, it could be. I mean, it's. It's questionable whether or not they'd allow that. I know there was the same kind of request with the George Floyd case, which was probably the most clear case with bias, where it should have been changed to a different venue, and they didn't. But that was, in my opinion, just a lynching. So, you know, it was horrible. But we'll have to see. Go ahead, Sergio.
- [39:25]
Sergio
Because it's on the same subject. If Don Lemon proves that he did not know that it was a church, like, will that get him off? Because, Marcela, you're a lawyer, you know. No. So if he knew, the lawyer would.
- [39:40]
Marcella
Say it depends on a lot of things. So, I mean, even if he knew it was a church, he could have said he didn't intentionally threaten anyone. Because I think you have to have the thread. I'm not familiar with the Face act and the KKA Act, KKK act, but I think there has to be more than just interrupting something. So it would have to be. There would have to be subpoenaed, different. Collected different documents, like his phone and his information in the computer and what they were planning and who was behind it. So it could lead to different type of charges once you investigate. But there is probable cause for arrest and for possibly more issues coming.
- [40:31]
Erica
I'm laughing because V8G360 on local said if Don Lemon is arrested, he will believe he is MLK Jr. Yes, he will. And also, I heard once they were asked to leave and they didn't, then that also turned into trespassing. So I'm not a lawyer.
- [40:52]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah. All right. Well, there is another victory on this front as well. The Beals Court apparently handed Trump, the Trump administration a victory in terms of the force restrictions. So there was a lawsuit saying that they were trying to stop ICE from being able to use force against protesters, and there was an injunction against that, and this was overturned. So the appeals court overturned that. And, you know, so the liberal judge that tried to handcuff ice has now been struck down. This is just a temporary victory. I think they're still, you know, moving forward with the case, but at this point, they're allowed to use force and they can continue doing what they're doing. All right. So, I mean, I think to me, the theme today, though, should be just Trump winning, because he seems to be winning so hard. I want to turn our attention to what's going on in Davos. And he has this framework that he agreed to for Greenland. Apparently, it's not even just Greenland. It's like the whole Arctic Cap or that whole region of the world. And so, you know, he went in there with a pretty strong card to play that he said he was going to ramp up the tariffs, and it looks like Europe and NATO back down. I don't know that it necessarily means he's going to literally acquire Greenland, but it does seem like he's going to get some kind of national defense thing, going there to protect that region against Russia and against China. And so Rubio and Witkoff and Vance, who are the usual people to lead most of the most important negotiations, have been leading the talks there. So I think that's still ongoing, but it looks like they have agreed to a framework and they at least got far enough with it that Trump said, I'm not going to go forward with the tariffs. He did mention that he's not going to use force to take Greenland, which seemed like a big sigh of relief for everybody. I don't know that any. Anyone? Well, I certainly never thought he was going to go invade Greenland with military force, but apparently he is saying that he's not going to do that. But at the same time, there's a quote from him saying, you know, we probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, but I won't do that. So he certainly is acknowledging that he could easily do that, but apparently he's taken that off the table. But that's huge, a huge win that he'd be able to get, you know, better protection over Greenland and that area of the world, because, as most of you are probably aware by now, it is a vulnerable spot in terms of both missiles and other attacks that might be coming from Russia or from China, that especially when the region is a little more navigable, you know, submarines can come through there, and there isn't much else protecting us against that. So that's like the most direct route from there to the United States. And so, you know, any kind of increased national security there, I think will be a huge win.
- [43:51]
Erica
I love when he kept saying iceland, sorry, and. And then somebody said, do you think Iceland's like, oh, my God, what did we do when he accidentally said, iceland.
- [44:00]
Marcella
Please, please make Iceland part of America.
- [44:04]
Brick Suit
I think one of the most important things, though, to look at that, the impending framework coming out of Greenland and the reports about it are, the very significant clause that's in there is that sovereignty will be granted to the United States in small pockets of Greenland. And that means it's not just the right for us to have a base. It means that that piece of land will actually be America. And that's important. Important, because if any of those pieces are on a coastline, we will have territorial rights to the ocean extending outwards to whatever the limit is from that point. And that enables us to have more control over the navigation and shipping lanes that may be going by that land at the time. So it's not just like an agreement to get bases done. You know, these are going to be real outposts of America on the top of the world that we are going to employ for our safety. And, you know, looking at Trump's negotiation strategy, it's pure Trump. It's classic Trump. Ask for much more than you need, you know, apply some, some, some screws of public pressure and then get back to what you really actually wanted, which was the ability to, to make bases up there, have some mineral rights, control some of the sea lanes, and just take it back from there. And if it eventually, you know, if a couple decades from now it leads to the Greenlanders embracing us and voting to, to join America, I mean, where are all these people, all these leftists in America who want to decolonize? They're always talking about decolonization, and yet here they are, still ostensibly supporters of European colonialism in North America. They should, they should want Greenlanders to be able to choose where they would like to make their affiliation. And that could still happen somewhere in the future.
- [46:00]
Sergio
One thing that Scott will say is how Trump created assets out of the air. Right? He, he didn't come with a basket of money, Right. He came with a, an idea that there could be guns around. Right. He also came up with the idea that, hey, tariffs might come down. That's the offer. There's nothing. He's not giving anything. It costed us zero dollars to get this deal. So that's the best part. And when I saw him talking yesterday, he's saying, I'm president of the planet now. That's it. That's what happened. Everybody just sit down. I am in charge now. It's a mess what you guys been doing for the last five years here. I'm going to fix it now. So I think that's what it looks like to me from a persuasion point. That's the message I get. What do you think Going?
- [46:58]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think everything I'm hearing is that he's following what Scott has said Trump does, which is to always take the strongest position on every issue. And he's been very direct, telling Europe that they need to follow America's example. And, you know, he talked a lot about the migration problem in Europe, which is worse than it is here, frankly, and how it's kind of ruining the country and they really need to turn that around. And it really seems like a lot of the European leaders are, you know, really looking up to Trump at this point. Point. There are some that have come out to defend his point of view, and nobody really is opposing him very strongly. And it's really bothering Gavin Newsom to the point where he was having a meltdown and saying, you know, he thought he should bring knee pads for the world leaders because they're, you know, sucking up to Trump so much. And so it really seems like a huge victory in terms of just how Trump is being perceived by all the world leaders, that he's clearly the big man on that stage and everyone's looking up to what he's doing, and I think they're acknowledging all of his victories. So it seems like he's just winning left and right. And the other issue I would add to this at this point is the Board of Peace that he's putting together. It's focused on Gaza, but it seems like he's trying to turn it into something even bigger than that, where I think he mentioned it might even replace NATO, this Board of Peace. And, you know, that may just be another provocative statement on his part. But the persuasion around that I think is just incredible. He invited Putin to join this border peace, and apparently Putin accepted. And he's even talking about paying the billion dollar fee that Trump is asking for to be a permanent member of it. And he's saying maybe he'll use some of those frozen funds that he can't use for anything else anyway, so he may get that billion dollars from. And then Trump also invited the Pope to join, and the Vatican said they're considering it. And I just find that incredible. Like, like, how could you, how could you say no to joining the Board of Peace as the Pope? And, you know, we all know that the Pope is not very politically aligned with Trump, but how could he not say, I'm going to be part of this Board of Peace?
- [49:20]
Sergio
That's genius. I didn't know about the Pope. That's a genius. And he got the medal. He got the medal already. He's got a Nobel Prize Peace Prize already, so he can call himself a medalist.
- [49:33]
Marcella
You know, someone on locals named Rushdie has a few points to make, but he indicates that the Board of Peace itself is a kill shot linguistically, because it drives you if you, if you go against it. It's like an 8020 subject where if you're going to not join, then that automatically puts you against peace. So it's, it's a high ground maneuver, as he said, and as Scott would say. So it's very interesting that he named it Board of Peace. And it's also very catchy and repetitive, so it drives them insane over in Europe. I love it. And I don't know, I was telling Owen and I think Erica and Sergio that the European leaders just look like children compared to Trump. They don't know what to do and how to even deal with the weapon grade persuasion that he's using on them.
- [50:46]
Erica
That's right, Nikki. On locals. Thanks, Nikki. She said that he launched the Board of Peace and 20 countries have signed on, including Egypt and Israel. He's describing it as the most prestigious board ever formed and emphasizing a potential for Gaza reconstruction. Okay, Owen.
- [51:11]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, no, that, I mean, I just think it's incredible that, you know, he, he's shaking the box again and he's, I mean, again, to me, that, like, the most, the most surprising thing is he, he actually invited Putin to join and he accepted because that to me extends this well beyond Gaza. Right. Like it. That has to be tied to what's going on in Ukraine.
- [51:32]
Marcella
Someone, I can't. Someone just put that France rejected Trump's offer of the Board of Peace from unusual whales.
- [51:42]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, well, I mean, it's not surprising to me that some of the more, less friendly European leaders might bow out, but, you know, they may end up changing their mind because they might realize they're being left out now. And if the border peace becomes something that's maybe as significant as the UN or NATO, they're going to want to be part of it. And, you know, it's one of these things where once you get enough countries on board, everybody else wants a seat at the table.
- [52:10]
Erica
And thanks for reminding us, Gunner. The cat also reminds us that Scott often said Russia and the US Are natural allies, and it's so true. And I have no issue. What do I know, again, But I have no issue with bringing Russia on board. I'd rather work together. You know, there were two countries that love our country and want to protect our countries and, you know, not join like a, a global initiative. So I, I'm down with that. I like it.
- [52:43]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah. Brick suit. What do you think?
- [52:47]
Brick Suit
Am I surprised that France has surrendered yet again? No. You know, certainly they were our greatest allies. We are celebrating our 250th anniversary, and you could make the argument, and you'd probably be correct, that we would not be a country without the intervention and the assistance of France in the American Revolution. So it has not always been the case that they've been this spineless. But I think certainly we can, we can look at the present leadership and their most recent leadership, you know, at the top level. Not Marine Le Pen, because I think she's a great Example of a populist nationalist leader that we're seeing in a lot of countries. But Macron is not, you know, why is he wearing glasses? Why is he wearing sunglasses again? Did it, you know, did Brigitte give him one of those getting off the plane slaps one more time? Like put the hand up in his face. Did he get the stiff arm one last time? I don't know. He's just, he's just not a strong leader. He doesn't project that. And it doesn't, it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't have the vision of President Trump and he's on his way out.
- [53:53]
Sergio
Right? He's, Trump doesn't want to invite him anywhere because he has no, no, no future right now.
- [54:01]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, well, I know his, the polls are terrible for Macron. Like it's just one of the lowest ever in history for a world leader. I don't remember the numbers off top of my head, but I know we've covered that in the past where the polls are just incredibly low. It's like less than even the 25% that Scott talks about. Like it's, it's really bad. So I don't think Macron has much of a future in his own country.
- [54:24]
Sergio
I think his wife might win more than him, you know.
- [54:29]
Owen Gregorian
If she's not still stuck in all the lawsuits against Candace Owens and everyone else. All right, well, let me, maybe we can end with a story that's on border, border control. So there's a record surge in DHS self deportation app usage. DHS is saying that the website traffic has surged 68% as thousands of people are using the app for voluntary departure. Fox News is reporting on this and they're saying there's 102 million views, 67 million visitors versus 40 million priorities. And so, you know, this is part of the app offers $1,000 stipend and travel aid for people who want to self deport. And so far we've had nearly 3 million illegals that have left the country. 2.2 million of those are self deport and 675,000 have been deported. So we've had the lowest U.S. border Patrol apprehensions ever. Fentanyl is down 50%. And I think they're saying this has basically saved us probably $13.2 billion. Huge victory.
- [55:37]
Sergio
A lot of lives, you know, with the fentanyl drops.
- [55:39]
Brick Suit
Right?
- [55:43]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah. And that was a very important issue for Scott.
- [55:45]
Brick Suit
Are down. You know, I think what you're talking about on the self deportation, let's recognize this fact when Biden opened the borders. So many benefits were being extended to illegal aliens that for economic reasons, they decided to come to the United States. It made sense. There were a lot of carrots out for them to do that. And, you know, I. I don't like that they came here, but I understand their reasoning. But now it's a totally different inverted scenario. The benefits are going away, and now they are economic actors. I think that they will begin to leave because not only do they get the assistance when they leave, which may have been ramped up recently. I know it was a 2000. I saw a story that may be even higher now. But if they stay, you know, they risk everything. They're not going to be able to sell off their possessions that they have here in the United States before they. Before they leave the country. If they leave the country voluntarily, they have a chance of being able to come back in the future. If they get caught, that chance is gone. And so, you know, this very strong economic incentives for these people to leave. And, you know, I think people have been doubting. People have been doubting that these deportations would be successful overall. People have been doubting a lot of things. And I'll just kind of a segue here. I've seen, you know, with regards to people being arrested in Minnesota, I saw a lot of black pillars, a lot of people saying that nothing would ever happen. I don't think it's any for this audience. I think we all know the difference here. If you stake out a position that nothing is going to happen, you're locked into that ideological. So instead of saying nothing's going to happen, just, you know, move a little bit over and say something could happen. You don't know what the chances are that that something could happen, but something good could happen in terms of what you want, the eventual outcome. Your best case scenario, don't lock yourself in here at the end of where nothing can happen. Move yourself closer this way, say something could happen, and then adjust your feelings later about the eventuality of that. When certain events happen, like today, there actually are arrests for that church invasion that happened just last weekend. So did it happen the next day like we all, like many people, wanted from, you know, one of these crime dramas on tv and a lot of people saying nothing's ever going to happen. Nothing. Well, something already happened, so adjust. And again, this is not necessarily audience, but maybe a way that you can explain it to people who, you know, who are in that black bill camp of nothing will ever happen. Help nudge them over to something could happen.
- [58:32]
Erica
And that's what we would call a great reframe brick suit. Thank you. You guys, I'm going to wrap it up. Shelly's going to say something. The only things I wanted to let you know. First of all, Bricksuit, Amazing. Thank you so much. Everybody wants you to come back, so we hope you will join us again. It was such a treat having you here. Owen, Marcella and Sergio. I love you guys. You're. You're the bomb. Sergio wants to say something. I can't hear you. Oh, wait, go ahead. Can you guys hear Sergio? I can't, no. Okay. Okay. So tomorrow is going to be a little bit of a shorter show, but we're going to be here, all right. And we have some guests lined up for next week also, and we're reading your comments on YouTube and locals and trying to check you guys out. And thank you for the amazing feedback. So we're going to turn it over to Shelley, and we'll see you guys in the morning.
- [59:39]
Shelley
Yes. Thank you, everybody.
- [59:42]
Brick Suit
Thank you.
- [59:42]
Shelley
Bricksuit. I just want to remind everybody that there will be a live stream honoring Scott's legacy. It'll take place Sunday this. This Sunday, January 25th, roughly around 11:00am Pacific Standard Time. So I hope that you can all join in, as that's what Scott wishes were. So thank you and we will see you tomorrow. Bye.