The Scott Adams School - SEPTEMBER 11th, 2026 The Home Team

obvious. But, but all right, we are live. There's somebody—

Good morning, everyone.

There's someone on Locals, if I'm like a few seconds late, who is it? I forget, but they'll write in all as one word, werica, like, where's Erica? I was like, that's cute. Okay, good morning, everyone.

He's getting in.

Yep. Okay, YouTube's kicked in.

Find your parking spot and get your drink ready.

Find your partner and do-si-do. Come on in, everyone. Can you believe it's another Friday? I feel like the time goes so fast. It's crazy.

Yeah.

But right, it's like, oof. And I haven't really looked forward to a Friday in so long. Meaning like my job was just always like whenever, wherever. But now with the Scott Adams School, like Monday through Friday, I have like a committed thing, which I love. But I'm like, oh my God, it's Friday. And it's like the end of the week. I feel like I wasn't clocking the calendar before. Oh, but here we are. Here we are. All right. So you want to—

Slowly turning Erica into a 9-to-5er.

It's terrible like that.

Oof.

Somebody said, oh, so do you have like a lunch hour? I'm like, lunch hour? No one's had a lunch hour in 30 years. Like, what is that? Oh my goodness. Owen, do you get a lunch hour?

I don't. No, not really. I mean, I think it's, I think this, the general thought is like 8 to 5 is the normal workday in most clients we deal with at least, but in consulting, it's all driven by what the client's doing and In my case, and this is probably most of the time now because there's so many people working remote, but like I have people in every time zone, every time zone, like all over the world. But, but it's even in the US, it's like I've got people on the West Coast and the East Coast and in the Central. And so there's no one lunch hour.

Yeah.

And I've always owned businesses.

Everybody's either—

that's, uh, when you own a business It was like the BlackBerry was glued to you. It doesn't matter what time it is, you're just on. And Marcella, you're an attorney, so at least you get to hit the timer when you're working. You're like, oh, are we discussing?

Am I charging for lunch since I'm talking to you?

Yes, exactly. Uh, so you guys, welcome in, welcome in. Um, let's get to the sip, and we have an important Show today, of course. And let's, let's see Scott first.

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Go.

Oh yes, divine.

Taboon divine.

Thank you.

I wonder if that was the Kavanaugh nomination.

I yeah, uh yeah, probably was. Thinking about— I'm not sure what year that's right. I think it's— never mind. Oh, when you're gonna distract me now, I'm like, who could it have been? It could have been this one or that one.

Well, that was such a clown show though. I mean, it was like such a ridiculous spectacle.

It was so sad. I was so sad for Kavanaugh and his family. I was just like, wow, how terrible. Anyway, we can really be jerks, can't we? But I remember a time when we all came together, and that was 25 years ago today, you guys. So, you know, let's Let's talk about it for a minute here, at least. You know, it's September 11th. It's the 25th anniversary of the terror attack that changed our world and our lives forever. We lost almost 3,000 souls that day. And, oh, you know, I think somewhere around 5,500 more from illnesses related to that terror attack since. So more people have died after, uh, because of cancers from the smoke or injuries or all. And I, and I know some of those people that died after, and I know some of those people that died that day. Um, and so we're just gonna, you know, spend the first part of the show discussing this a bit. And, you know, Marcela was curious to know, you know, where we all were that day, and you guys can drop it in the chat. Um, but I'm here. I am just, uh, across the river. From Lower Manhattan, from where the World Trade Center was. And it was the most gorgeous Tuesday morning in September, like as we call it here, local summer. All the touristy, you know, summer people were gone. And it's now like the locals get to bask in the beautiful weather. And my sister-in-law called me and she said, oh my God, I got to get Andy's phone number. You know, there's no cell phones. I got to get Andy's phone number. I said, what happened? And you know, she's like, a plane hit the Twin Towers. And I was like, oh my God, like what? You know, and I didn't even know. I didn't, I didn't think it was a little plane, a big plane. I didn't think any. I was like, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. And then I started thinking like, oh shit, like you start going through all the people I know that worked in the building or worked downtown or right there. And so then you're, you know, kind of like in this freakout mode. And I put the TV on and I don't know who I was watching. And then The second plane hit. And, you know, and then I just— it felt like it was so fast. They were like, there's another one heading, you know, like another one hit the Pentagon. And, you know, there's so many planes like that we can't— and I was like, oh my God, I remember thinking, should I get under my bed? Like, that's how crazy it felt. Like, I felt like all this fear. I didn't know what to do. I was panicked. And, um, I just Got in my car. I don't know why. I like it was like I was sleepwalking. I just got in my car and I drove to a state park here on the shore that's like really like a stone's throw from New York, and I just like walked out as far as I could onto the beach, and there was other people there, and I just was like watching the buildings just smoking and burning, and just like staring at. I took some pictures with my little crappy camera. I was like, what is happening? And then all of a sudden. The military was there with guns, and I'm like, oh my God. And they were just like, you need to evacuate right now, get off the property. And so we were like, holy crap. And then it was just a cycle of trying to find people that we knew and just feeling so sick. I mean, like I tell you guys all the time, the smoke just started drifting across the river. It came over my house for weeks and you could smell it. You could smell it. And there was ambulances from every town and everywhere because the ferry in New York City lands here. So it was just bringing anybody they could, like getting them off of Lower Manhattan on the ferries. Other ferries were coming in. And then it was just weeks of, you know, finding out who didn't make it, funeral processions, vigils everywhere. One town near me, it's a A small town lost 48 people in one town because this, this area where I live, um, there's a huge majority that work in the financial district in, in the World Trade Center and, and the like. So we lost a lot of people in my county. Um, and I have a difficult time on this day. Oh, and, uh, I still have PTSD from it. Um, You know, like hearing the fighter jets flying over. I do have like this weird fear when I hear an airplane that's too low. I get I get PTSD from it. But it was just the worst thing ever. I just can't even explain it for for me. Just I don't know. We we just we lost a lot of friends and loved ones, and I have a lot of friends who lost friends. So like you know the friends. Through association, you know, it's like hundreds and hundreds of people by like, you know, just a couple of degrees of separation of people that die that, you know, affected us so much. So I don't know. I mean, that's kind of all I can say about my experience of it right now, because otherwise I'll end up like sobbing for real. So I'm going to keep it together and let's go to the middle of the country and ask Owen. Where he was.

I was getting ready to work, getting ready to go to work for my client, who was United Airlines. And I was working at their headquarters. I was doing a project, like following up on some Y2K stuff we did for them and some other things. And, and, um, the— so I was getting ready to go to United Airlines headquarters. And, um, my wife watches the news every morning, and she was actually pregnant with my second child. And, you know, my younger one was maybe 2 at the time, or close to that. And so she was watching the news, and she told me, hey, there, you know, this plane hit the Twin Towers. And I was like, wow, really? And I started watching the news and the footage. And at that point, only one plane had hit, and nobody knew what was going on. And we kind of all assumed It was an accident, right? We just assumed it must be some kind of accident that, you know, caused the plane to go down and happen to hit the building. And but we were just kind of like watching, like, what's going on? And then the second plane hit. And so we we knew that that was, you know, intentional and. You know, I think my first thought was just the whole world just changed. It's like nothing has happened like that. I don't know about ever, really. And so I'm sure I didn't really know what to make of it. But, you know, immediately my thought went to, should I go to work? Like, should I go to United? And so I had to make a bunch of phone calls and the answer was no, don't go. And that the headquarters was shut down. And they were down, I think they shut down for like a week or 2 at the headquarters where they had nobody coming to work because they didn't know what was gonna happen next, right?

Yeah.

They didn't know if there were more attacks coming or, you know, they grounded all the planes, right, for a while. And so it disrupted my life at that point immediately just because I couldn't even go to work. But, you know, I knew, that that was going to be a change. I don't know if I immediately thought we're going to war because of this, but at some point that entered my mind. It might have been later, but because I had kind of done some research back in the early Persian Gulf War before it was the Persian Gulf War and before anybody said we're going to war, I kind of predicted that because I saw the signs. And I think at some point I came to the same conclusion with this. But, you know, it certainly was just like the whole world changed that day. And it was, you know, incredible just to witness it, even if it was just on TV. I know you were closer to it. So it was probably a much bigger thing. And I don't know that I had the same PTSD. But, you know, it was just a huge thing. It was like that, you know, the world just stopped.

Yeah.

And so that— I was in my house getting ready to go to United Airlines, and I ended up staying home that day and for probably a week or two after that, just because, you know, we couldn't go to our client.

Yeah.

And obviously there was, you know, United Airlines involved in that. And so they were worried about that too. And But, you know, we got over it. We drove on and eventually things, I don't know if they really, really went back to normal, but, you know, we moved on. So that's where I was.

Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. And Marcella?

Well, I'm in the— I'm in California. I was in California and I wasn't in school at the time. The school had not let in. So, you know, I was sleeping in because it was what, 5, 46 when the first one hit. But my mom screamed. My mom, of course, was awake, and she screamed and she said, there's an attack. This is before— this is the first plane. She was like, there's an attack. Your cousin, the sheriff, the LA— you know, my cousin who's in the sheriff's department, LA Sheriff's Department, had called. The family and had told them to get ready. And we were like, okay, let's get ready for an attack. And it brought memories from my old country. And so we were, you know, we were in this mode of like, okay, now we're being attacked. Now what do we do next? And it was— but then I, I went downstairs Put on— don't, don't hate me for this— put on CNN. And as I was putting on CNN, because she screamed at like 5:46, then by the time I got downstairs, put the news on, the next plane hit. And we were like, okay, we're not going out. We're gonna like get, get— figure out what to do. And, um, Immediately, we're like, this is this is Islamist or some Islamic terrorist, and they're not going to say it. And we'll you know, and it took a while for it to be known.

Yeah, but yeah, it was it was so we'd never been attacked on the homeland. Nobody knew what to do. Nobody was prepared for it. I I do want to say you know so. During that first day, you know, we were just waiting to get phone calls to find out, like, if certain friends, you know, that, like, we grew up with made it back or not. I mean, there were the miracle stories of, like, you know, my friend who was like, oh my God, it is such a gorgeous day. I'm playing hooky today and I'm gonna do local summer, and, like, didn't go in for whatever reason. You're like, thank God. Or, you know, like the, uh, who was it that, you know, took their, their child to kindergarten and his whole entire company died? Um, but, you know, he took his kid to the first day of kindergarten and, um, was that Cantor Fitzgerald, you guys? I'm sorry if I forget.

Yeah.

But then we have a lot of, um, our friends and family here are firemen. They all headed in on buses. They met at like, uh, Giant Stadium, it was called there, MetLife Stadium. And they got on buses and went into New York and they were part of like digging out the rubble and trying to rescue people. And like, then you're like so worried about them and you're like, what's happening there? And, you know, then they would come back and have to be decontaminated and go through this process. And my one friend died a couple of years ago. His nickname was Digger, and he worked in New York. He lived here, but he worked in New York and he operated the massive, massive, massive machinery, like the giant bulldozers and earth-moving machines. And he died from cancer related to that process. He was there for a year cleaning up, um, and, you know, left behind some children. My, my other friend, she's had 3 different cancers, and I mean, she looked like one of those zombie people covered in ashes just trying to get out of New York all day, just like head to toe covered. Um, yeah, Howard Lutnick. And, um, so it was just crazy, you guys, but You know, I think, I think we failed in our never forget because it seems that most people under the age of 40 don't really understand what happened that day. And then you say like under 35, under 30, these are the voting bloc today that have no idea of what happened and what our country was like on September 10th versus September 12th. We all came together so hard. I mean, I can remember like we would just be like driving in the car and windshield to windshield seeing someone pass you here, you would just give like a little smile like through your windshields. It was just like, we're all going through it and we're gonna be okay because we're gonna stick together. We're Americans, you know, We've got each other's backs and we were on one page. And, um, I, I've been listening to a lot of news about college kids that are like, uh, like they asked, you know, what's September 11th, like a man on the street style interview, and they don't really know. They're like, oh, I, I don't know, wasn't it like a war or something? And you know what?

Mm-hmm.

Parents, aunts, uncles, Whoever you are, find someone under, under 35 and tell them what happened before and after and how we came together and what the day was like and what we went through, because it's only 25 years ago. And so I, you know, I'm not saying it's about elections, but it is about elections. We now have an Islamist mayor, an Islamist mayor. In New York, which makes me want to—

Who believes we deserved 9/11?

Yes.

And we have people in Congress. We have a whole squad of people in Congress. And I mean, it just seems like people are starting to get elected at every level that really hate this country and are sympathetic to these terrorists.

Well, not only that. Okay. I found the root cause of suicidal empathy. Okay, this is why Gad Saad was able to write his book. And we talk about all the time how you know we were told, you know, don't say anything bad. You know, whatever. Where is my clip? So, but while let me just pull it. But while I'm pulling that, you guys, so just remember, I remember so vividly. The news again, once again, the media in lockstep saying, don't say anything bad, don't talk bad about anyone. You know, if you do, you're racist and you're mean, and we want people to feel welcome here. First of all, we didn't need anybody to tell us how to behave. There was no one ever running around just being nasty to people for no reason. But telling us specifically that you couldn't say something was very odd. But this is This is just, I think, yesterday or the day before, President George W. Bush talking to Condoleezza Rice about 9/11. And here is your root cause of suicidal empathy.

I want you to talk about a couple of those events. You talked about going to the Islamic Center and, and trying to make sure that our Muslim American citizens knew that we didn't blame them.

Right.

I also made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that these people subverted their religion.

Yes. I want you to talk about a couple of—

I could play it on a loop for you all day.

What?

He's still an idiot.

Does he have Alzheimer's or what?

He's still an idiot.

That is totally false.

It's— and we're gonna get into that, you guys. So I know, so I just have a— I mean, I did too. I just have a couple of clips that I want to play for you, and they're of our president, President Trump, who was there. And here he is. This one was from— this is from WOR Radio, which is a big radio station here. I think Sean Hannity and everybody are still on it. So this was him. He called in to talk to Alan Marcus, who was a host and a friend of his. Um, I find this very interesting. Listen, listen, this is just to tickle those of you that need to hear a little bit of something like this. Take a listen to what President Trump said on 9/11. This is on the day.

Donald, you're probably the best-known builder, uh, particularly of, of great buildings in the city. There's a great deal of question about whether or not the damage And the ultimate destruction of the buildings was caused by the airplanes, by architectural defect, or possibly by bombs or aftershocks. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Well, it was an architectural defect. You know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building. Don't forget, that took a big bomb in the basement. Now, the basement is the most vulnerable place because that's your foundation, and it withstood that. And I got to see that area about 3 or 4 days after it took place because one of my structural engineers One of the engineers actually took me for a tour because he did the building, and I said, I can't believe it. The building was standing solid and half of the columns were blown out. I mean, so this was an unbelievably powerful building. If you know anything about structure, it was one of the first buildings that was built from the outside. The steel— the reason the World Trade Center had such narrow windows is that in between all the windows you had the steel on the outside. So you had the steel on the outside of the building. That's why When I first looked— and you had big heavy I-beams— when I first looked at it, I couldn't believe it because there was a hole in the steel. And this is steel that was— you remember the, the width of the windows in the World Trade Center, folks? I think you, you know, if you were ever up there, they were quite narrow, and in between was this heavy steel. I said, how could a plane, even a plane, even a 767 or a 747 or whatever it might have been, how could it possibly go I happen to think that they had not only a plane, but they had bombs that exploded almost simultaneously, because I just can't imagine anything being able to go through that wall. Most buildings are built with the steel on the inside around the elevator shaft. This one was built from the outside, which is the strongest structure you can have, and it was almost just like a, like a can of soup.

You know, Donald, we were looking at pictures all morning long of that plane coming into Building Building number 2. And when you see that approach the, the far side, and then all of a sudden, within a matter of milliseconds, the explosion pops out the other side, right?

I just think that it was a plane with more than just fuel. I think obviously they were very big planes. They were going very rapidly because I was also watching where the plane seemed to be not only going fast, it seemed to be coming down into the building. So it was getting the speed from going downhill, so to speak. It just seemed to me that to do that kind of destruction is even more than a big plane, because you're talking about taking out steel, the heaviest caliber steel that was used on a building. These buildings were rock solid. And, you know, it's just an amazing— it's an amazing thing. It's— this country is different today, and, and it's going to be different than it ever was For many years to come.

Very.

That's right. So I just—I mean, he—you know—he knows building. So I just found that interesting. And I'm watching your comments, and you guys, let's do a separate show one day on Building Seven and everything else because you know it—it's interesting.

Were conspiracy theories really a thing before 9/11, or was that what really kicked it off?

No, think about Kennedy. Like, start there.

Yeah, yeah, I guess.

I mean, but I guess it just, it seems to me like, like in, in the last, you know, 5, 10 years, a lot of the time we had with Scott, like, you know, conspiracy theories are kind of like a major part of our culture. Like, there's all these conspiracy theories about, you know, every— and I know it traces back even further to like Oklahoma City bombings and, uh, but I guess I, you know, maybe I just wasn't on social media back then, but nobody was. Yeah, and that might be part of it, but it's like, it seems to me like the moon landing, Owen.

Yeah, but it's just like Pearl Harbor.

I never heard about people talking about conspiracy theories and all this stuff except my crazy uncle.

Well, think about this. CIA invented the term just to be able to get away with things and label people as crazy. MKUltra, the whole You know, the Chaos book. So no, it's not new. We're— you know what it is? We're smarter now and we, we trust less and we have access to more information so we can talk about it more.

Yeah, I just— it seems to me like this was certainly something that even to this day people have a lot of questions about and there's new stuff coming out. And well, yeah, I do. I mean, I, I don't, I don't know what to believe. I would probably still be a skeptic about all the conspiracy theories. Like, I don't necessarily believe Like 100% that it was an inside job or there were bombs in the building or somebody's mission of the third building that people talk about. There's all these theories out there, right? And who's really behind it?

And then there's the truth.

Whether we knew about it or whatever. And it just seems to not go away. And it seems to almost feed all the other conspiracy theories about Oklahoma City. Name your conspiracy theory. But, um, and, and I think part of it over the last 5 or 10 years has been like a lot of these conspiracy theories tend to seem to come true. Um, and, you know, MKUltra is an example of that. But I think that there's a lot where it's like, well, actually, that's exactly what happened. And Scott would often point out like, you know, it's exactly what you thought. Like, you know, we kind of had this suspicion and then all of a sudden now we're getting proof. And a lot of that's coming out in the Trump administration now, at least about Russiagate and fraud and all these other things. But I think this was just a huge cultural moment just in terms of making people not trust authorities.

Maybe. I mean, I think a lot of them were, and I just think as our technology improved, You know, we just got more savvy and more people woke up. But you know, you try to look back on—I mean, God, you could go down the rabbit hole on Martin Luther King also. And Elvis being alive. Well, like you know, there's a lot of conspiracy with Martin Luther King and Junior. And you know, was he really who they said he was? And was he an asset? And did they use him as a prop? And you know, you hate to say those things, but there's a lot of evidence that shows that. So did Trump really release? The MLK files? No. Um, you know, they say they're going to release these things, but they don't.

And, you know, he may have released what they had at whatever level they looked, but I, I think my, my understanding of the MKUltra stuff is a lot of that stuff was destroyed intentionally to keep it from ever getting released.

Um, maybe.

Or so they say.

Yeah.

I mean, it's hard to know.

We could spend hours on this stuff.

The obvious question on MKUltra is just like, you know, do we really believe that that sort of thing or whatever the new version of it isn't going on? Like, it's always kind of this implied message like, oh, this terrible thing happened 30 years ago, but we don't do any of that anymore.

Oh no, yes we do. Really?

Yeah, it's still going on under a different name.

Are you saying MKUltra techniques are not still going on?

I'm saying it's pretty obvious that they are, but they're not going to talk about it because the current CIA obviously is all secret and they're not going to reveal it. I'm just saying it's kind of like it defies rationality to say the government was doing all these extremely, you know, over-the-line things and then suddenly they got a conscience and now they're just totally ethical and never do any of that.

Right.

So, you know, it's like nothing else changed about how the CIA operates or the people running it. And, you know, I think— wasn't Bush even a CIA director, or was it his father? I can't remember.

His father's father.

Yeah, but like a lot of presidents have been CIA directors, and like, you know, it's, it's, it's all over the place. And, you know, then you have people like John Brennan and Clapper and others that end up like media figures.

Comey. They're all part of the Atlantic Council.

You know, it's like the CIA is like all over the place. And it wasn't— Spanberger have some kind of intelligence link to—

Yes, he worked for the CIA.

Everywhere you look, yeah, everywhere you look, it seems like they're— well, then they got their tentacles in.

So then look at President Trump coming on the scene and they're like, oh hell no, like he is not, you know, married to CIA, he's not one of us, he's not in any agency, like what are we gonna do? And you saw how they lost their ever-loving minds. Let me play this second clip of President Trump Let's take a listen. This is— oh, and I love this. This is NBC News in New York. He's on the street and they interview him. And oh my God, I love the chyron. I love how everything looked back then, so old-fashioned. Here we go.

Now, just a few moments ago, Donald Trump passed through here, so we had a minute to talk with him. Let's roll that tape. You can see what he had to say.

Well, I've never seen anything like it. I've I've seen 2 huge 110-story buildings that are reduced to rubble, thousands and thousands of lives. I just got to see something that I've never seen before. I have hundreds of men inside working right now, and we're bringing down another 125 in a little while. And they've never done work like this before. And they're hardworking people, but they've never seen anything like it, and they've never— they've never done work like this before. It's terrible.

Tell me what it's like at Ground Zero. Tell us about the workers that you saw and what they're doing there.

Well, not only is it devastation, but it's very dangerous, because every few minutes a whistle would go off and everybody would just run, because you have all the buildings around it which are in such a weakened state that people just don't know. And so they just have to take off. And then they come back, and they're working under 50-story buildings that you don't know if they're going to fall down. So it's a terrible thing for the workers, and it's a terrible thing for the world, really.

How— have you spoken to any of your men? Do you know how they're reacting to this? Because emotionally, this must be so incredibly difficult.

Well, there are a lot of them, but they've never seen bodies like this. I mean, the bodies all over the— I mean, the great thing is when they find somebody that's alive, like the 5 firemen that they just found a little while ago. So that's the great thing, and that's what they're all striving for. But generally speaking, that's not what the case— that's not the case. So They are working very, very hard, but it's, it's a very depressing situation for these folks.

As you walked around and as you saw the piles of rubble, there are thousands of families out there who are hoping that someone might be in a pocket somewhere, still alive, still breathing, waiting to be dug up. As you assessed that damage from your perspective, do you believe that's possible?

Well, I would certainly not want to be the one to say it's not possible. Certainly it's It's a tough situation, but you can't give up hope because there's always hope. I mean, the 5 men, I'm sure their families thought that they probably were gone, and now they walk in the door. A couple of them walked away after they were dug out, so there probably are some more people in there, and therefore you can't give up hope.

You've had an impact on the skyline of New York. What is it like as you see it now?

It's like a whole different skyline. It's like a whole different city and world. I cannot believe We can never leave the site of Lower Manhattan without the World Trade Center, and therefore we have to rebuild, not necessarily in that form, but we have to rebuild at least as good and maybe better.

Just finally, can you tell me emotionally as you walked around, we've, we've heard some of the stories from the firemen, they're so exhausted and mentally and physically. What was it like for you personally to go in and see all of what you saw?

Well, it was amazing to see it. It was a very depressing scene, but I'll tell you what, you really can take heart. These firemen and policemen and the construction workers equally, the courage they have is unbelievable. I mean, they're working, digging out and lifting up steel, and above them you have 55-story buildings that are very possibly going to be pouring down on them any minute, and they're working like nothing's wrong. I mean, it's— they're amazing.

He's this. He's always been the same person. I've never seen him be inconsistent, you know, from back in the day till till now, and his feelings of loving the country, loving New York, his compassion for the workers, the country, families. He's you know he's a generous soul. So. Oh, and for anyone coming in late that did not have a sip, can we just have an interstitial sip right now before we just get into one more clip? Um, you know, let's, uh, let's actually, let's actually have a moment of silence, which I was gonna do at the beginning of the show.

Mm-hmm.

Um, for all the souls lost, for the devastation. You know, we said never forget. Let's, let's at least remember right now. And maybe while you're having a moment of silence, you know, Pray for those people, and then think about someone that you can tell the story of 9/11 to that's a younger generation so they can understand, um, like we do. Okay, so let's have a moment of silence. Thanks.

Thanks.

Okay, thanks you guys, and let's let's have a toast to those souls. Now, one thing I wanted to do is once again this is my last clip on this today, and then we're going to move on. I want to play this. Very empowering clip from Bridget Gabriel that I had played for you guys some months ago. And I will see if I can— I'll post this later too in case anybody wants it. So here's Bridget Gabriel, and she'll let you know what the real deal is.

To you all, my name is Saba Ahmed. I'm a law student at American University. I am here to ask you a simple question. I know that we portray Islam and all Muslims as bad, but there is 1.8 billion Muslim followers of Islam. We have 8 million-plus Muslim Americans in this country, and I don't see them represented here. But my question is, how can we fight an ideological war with weapons? How can we ever end this war? The jihadist ideology that you talk about, it's an ideology. How can you ever win this thing if you don't address it ideologically?

Great question. I am so glad you're here, and I am so glad you brought that up because it gives us an opportunity to answer. What I find so amazing is since the beginning of this panel, which we are here about Benghazi attack against our people, not one person mentioned Muslims. We are here against Islam, or we're launching war against Muslims. We are here to discuss how 4 Americans died and what our government is doing. We were not here to bash Muslims. You were the one who brought up the issue about most Muslims, not us. And since you brought it up, allow me to elaborate with my answer. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world today. Of course, not all of them are radicals. The majority of them are peaceful people. The radicals are estimated to be between 15 to 25% according to all intelligence services around the world. That leaves 75% of them peaceful people. But when you look at 15 to 25% of the world Muslim population, you're looking at 180 million to 300 million people dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization. That is as big as the United States. So why should we worry about the radical 15 to 25%? Because it is the radicals that kill, because it is the radicals that behead and massacre. When you look throughout history, when you look at all the lessons of history, most Germans were peaceful, yet the Nazis drove the agenda. And as a result, 60 million people died, almost 14 million in concentration camps. 6 million were Jews. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at Russia, most Russians were peaceful as well, yet the Russians were able to kill 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at China, for example, most Chinese were peaceful as well, yet the Chinese were able to kill 70 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at Japan prior to World War II, most Japanese were peaceful as well, yet Japan was able to butcher its way across Southeast Asia, killing 12 million people, mostly killed with bayonets and shovels. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. On September 11th in the United States, we had 2.3 million Arab Muslims living in the United States. It took 19 hijackers, 19 radicals, to bring America down to its knees, destroy the World Trade Center, attack the Pentagon, and kill almost 3,000 Americans that day. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. So for all our powers of reasons and us talking about moderate and peaceful Muslims, I'm glad you're here. But where are the others speaking out? And since you are the only Muslim representative— Save the applause till the end.

Thank you.

And since you're the only Muslim representative in here, you took the limelight instead of speaking about why our government— and I assume, are you an American? You're an American citizen. So as an American citizen, you sat in this room and instead of standing up and saying a question or asking something about our 4 Americans that died and what our government is doing to correct the problem. You stood there to make a point about peaceful, moderate Muslims. I wish you brought 10 with you to question about what— how we can hold our government responsible. It is time we take political correctness and throw it in the garbage where it belongs and stop calling it safe space.

And there will be refreshments afterwards.

I mean, yes, she did hit that nail on the head. The peaceful majority doesn't matter.

And let me just remind you one more time, I want you to talk about a couple of those events. You talked about going to the Islamic Center and, and trying to make sure that our Muslim American citizens knew that we didn't blame them for what had happened.

I also made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that these people subverted their religion.

Yes. And I'd like to remind you that Islam is not a religion. It's an ideology that is disgusting, hateful, and has no business being in America, but that's just my opinion. Okay, so that is the best reminder about what we're dealing with. And by the way, what she's talking about there is another September 11th event, which was Benghazi. So she was talking about the attack in Benghazi that killed 4 of our Americans. So interesting. And we said we'd never forget that either. So it seems, you know, it seems like we have a problem On our hands. And God, when she talks about the numbers of Islamists in our country at that time, that was 2011, I think, Benghazi. And now, like, now how many more are there? So, you know, we have, we have to use our voices or we have just given up or we just forgot. Um, anything in closing on this, Owen and Marcella?

It's just very eye-opening that, that 25 years with Condoleezza Rice and President— former President Bush, um, because this completely rewrites stories. I was just reading, I don't know if it was a Noen story or just another story on X, that, uh, 9/11 is being rewritten. History is being changed in front of our eyes, and it's tragic because, you know, say what you stood for during that time. You know, maybe say, okay, at that time I thought this and now I think this. You know, that could have been what President Bush could have said. But one of the reasons, um, we have, uh, Michigan and we have Minnesota and all sorts of things is because we went to fight a war in Afghanistan and Iraq. And there were asylum seekers after that, after fighting that war. And so part of that is all on Condoleezza Rice and President Bush. And they don't, you know, and the weapons of mass destruction, as you know.

But, uh, Condoleezza is not who you think she is, just FYI. But go ahead, Owen.

I would just add, you know, that it just, this is a really important part of our history. It really changed the whole nature of government warfare, how we operate as a society. It brought us together, but it also pulled us apart in many ways. And it created the whole surveillance state and really was a big factor in just the government is today and how We think, and it just underlies a lot of things that you might not really think about, but it's there. And, um, so I, I do think it's important to remember. It's important to remember what was happening at the time as a— and what people thought at the time, as opposed to just what people are trying to say now. Because I agree that they are trying to recast history. And, you know, we have stories about not wanting to call the people terrorists, or, um, you know, and, you know, we've had some of this before, like the, you know, some people did something comment that Ilhan Omar, I think, was saying at one point. And, you know, just terrible things that minimize what happened. But it was just a massive attack. So many people lost their lives, and so many heroes tried to save lives. And, um, It became a huge part of our culture and I don't want it to be forgotten. So I'm glad we're covering it now and I'm glad we keep coming back to it every year because I think it is important to just remember that that happened and to do our best to make sure that it never happens again.

I agree. Well said. Yeah, Ilhan Omar, I have her clip right here, but I'm not going to play it. But she's She's a snake. So make sure you talk to your kids, you guys, even if they're adult kids. They don't know what happened. And I just— I'll never forget all of the American flags on everyone's house, their cars, their businesses, just American flags everywhere. So let's do Scott's playbook, you guys, today and just post American flags on your social media. Just litter social media with just pictures of American flags and tag it Never Forget and tag it Be Useful. 2 good messages. So we don't have time to get into a story I really wanted to get into, you guys, but on Monday we're going to bring detailed, more detailed information to you about what we spoke about briefly with Walter Kern is this Jacob Coxon, who resigned from OpenAI and is saying that we're all going to be dead in a decade from AI. I am 50/50 on the probability because I am hearing arguments on both sides that are persuasive. But over— Marcella and Owen and I have been reading about it and digging into it. So Monday, we're going to bring you that story as best as we can to see how it develops. But I just thought for fun, if I had to see it, you have to see it segment is coming up. So did you know there was a little socialist meeting happening just the other day? And I don't think they're wearing masks because they're afraid of germs. I think some of them are hiding their identity based on the things they're saying. But these are your DSA folk. Let's take a listen, and this is like again fitting for why elections matter and why people need to be informed of the dangers of socialism. Please be gay, do crimes with me, and it's also really fucking weird just on the laws—not real thing—as an abolitionist, the ethos of abolition, an abolitionist positionality, an abolitionist liberal.

Liberatory ecosystem.

Debates in abolition. In abolition, especially as you—

if you think of it as both methodology and ideology.

When you abolish the police, you do burn down police stations, I imagine. Indeed we have, but, um, or some people have allegedly.

To the abolition of rent, nuclear weapons, prison, debt, even monopoly power, imperialism, you name it.

And abolition isn't— is What we are making rather than the erasure of what is. So when I say, as I've said many times, I know it's a meme, abolition is a presence, I mean it.

And by feminism, I mean anti-racist feminism, anti-capitalist feminism, abolition feminism. As abolitionist praxis.

It has been consistent with a Black Black feminist, Black left feminist praxis to be in solidarity with Palestine.

Prefigurative political praxis.

There's a difference between solidarity as political value and solidarity as organizing practice. Long march towards dialectical materialism.

To deepen the struggle, to broaden the struggle.

You know, love, study, and struggle is a framework for action.

Struggles across our history.

Some of us are card-carrying communists. Some of us democratic socialists, some of us Pan-Africanists, radical feminists, anti-imperialists, police abolitionists.

We need a junkie communism.

You know, Marx and Engels were actually really influenced by us, by the Haudenosaunee, and they saw us as like this—

they called us primitive communists.

So maybe you should never take your commie hat off.

Da'Shaun is a queer and trans theorist, anarcho-communist, Afro-pessimist, and Southern-born-and-bred abolitionist. I am not okay, comrades.

For over a decade, I've been part of a sort of transgender materialist and anti-work trans Marxist effort in revolutionary feminism in the West that theorizes, um, social reproduction and trans social reproduction and the positive supersession of capitalist care.

Imperialism, colonialism, Okay, I had to stop it, you guys. There's like another at least minute or more of that, but thank you for stopping it. I can't— I can't— can you imagine trying to talk to any one of these idiots? No one's like, I'm just an American. Um, all right, Owen, I need your take on this immediately.

The problem— the problem is just that these aren't just the fringe anymore. Like, there's always been these crazies, you know, and there's some on the right too, but I— like, they've never been taken seriously and they've never been allowed into like actually getting elected into office. And so that's the problem, is that the Democrats are ushering in these people and saying, yeah, we have room for you under our big tent and we can do all these socialist things. And it's becoming kind of like the mainstream platform of the party. And that's what's crazy. I mean, it's one thing to say there's always going to be these anarcho-communist people and wackos like Marcella who want Ayn Rand to be the world. No, I'm just kidding.

But I was like, what? I was like, Marcella, who? I was there and I covered my— I put a mask and I covered myself. So, yeah.

But, but, you know, like, like previously, you know, these people on the left were just thought of as, okay, those are the wackos. Like, you know, you're not going to actually take them seriously or make it part of your party platform. But that's what's happening now. And that's why it's such a threat, is that it's not just a few people saying stupid things. It's, you know, they're really embracing it on the Democrat Party. And, and that's the problem.

Yeah, um, go ahead.

What I was gonna say is the axis of evil has changed. Now it's Iran, China, and the Democratic Party. Oh yeah, and it used to not be. And like Owen said, this was not the common Democratic stance. Now it is. And on top of that, you know, I, I noticed all of them are very progressive, very liberal socially, you know, they're, you know, they're pro gay, pro-trans and all that, if they were to walk into Gaza, into Palestine, into Saudi Arabia, into many of these countries, even Iran, they'd be killed.

Yeah.

So for them to even, even like— I don't— if you, if you have your point of pro-trans, pro-gay, whatever, good, okay, that's your point. But the fact that you are supporting people that would kill you, that's just insane to me.

I never heard the word abolitionist so much in my life. Oh my God, it's so— so you have to understand, you guys, they want to literally burn it all down and then just open the borders and have like complete chaos free-for-all. And they're— if they get into power, if the Democrats get into power, that's exactly what's going to happen. So I do love that we're having a midterm convention because we do need to perk people up and they need to vote like their lives depend on it.

And I would, I would just add, like, if Scott were here, he might point out that you using that word abolitionist is an intentional persuasion word because they're trying to associate themselves with abolishing slavery.

Yes.

And it's a powerful word to use, right? Because who's going to say they don't want to be an abolitionist in today's world?

Those people.

Well, just anybody. Like, you'd say, of course I'm an abolitionist. But they're applying it to a totally different context where it doesn't make sense. And it's crazy to say you want to abolish The police, not the systems. But it is a very persuasive word to use. So I just wanted to point that out.

It is a persuasive word and now overused. But I would like to believe that at least 80% of you people watching this, if someone said to you, are you an abolitionist? You'd be like, of what? So we ask questions. And Frank, did you want this clip? I mean, I'll share it for you on my X if you want it. I couldn't get through it. I was like, this is too much for everybody. But that's what we're dealing with in that election, in the election. So I know that the second day of the convention was last night, right? And so J.D. Vance was well received, thunderous applause for him for everything he did. And Did you guys hear any more about that that's important for everybody?

Oh, there was a guy that came in with a flag of— at first they thought it was Palestine, but it was Mexican flag. And that was a good moment for JD Vance. He was like, if you want to, you know, if you want to go to Mexico, get your ass over there.

He's like, I'll buy your plane ticket.

And that's another, another thing I have about the going back to the, like, if I'm this, I'm that, I'm that. and then now I'm supporting Iran or supporting, uh, Islamists or whatever they're supporting. They're also like, whenever they do their protests and they, they have different flags, then go there. If you want to be that, that country, go there, you know? That's my point.

Yeah. Owen, did you catch anything, or is there any other thing in a, in a couple of minutes that you want to tell us about?

Well, there certainly was that stuff about— there was a story about Rubio saying that the cartels are controlling a lot of Mexico. But I think we're maybe opening up another front, if we haven't already, on that front to fight the cartels. I'm not sure what that'll become, but it's something to watch.

Mm-hmm.

And I think there's A bunch of election integrity stuff still going on. They apparently caught somebody in California, I think it was, that was basically— I mean, he was arrested and he was apparently targeting people in Skid Row to forge registers, voters, and names and addresses on petitions to qualify ballot initiative. So, you know, it's not voting per se, but it's like the ballot initiative part of voting, which is part of that process. Hmm. And so it seems like we're just uncovering more and more every day about what's going on there. And, you know, we also caught someone in Minnesota again that got sentenced to 97 months for fraud related to the Feeding My Future thing that Tim Walz seems to be defending. This guy named Makfira Hussein. You know, you might be able to guess what kind of background that person has. And another one named Abdul Jabbar Hussein. They got, but I think one got 57 months, the other got 40 months for wire fraud. And they were basically faking meal counts and using false attendance rosters and just submitting claims. So I think it was a total of $8.8 million that they stole. So plenty of that going on.

Wow.

And then on the good news side, well, I don't know about the good news side. Newsom's Chances seem to be plummeting in the election. I'm sure Scott would not have been surprised at that, but because he predicted that, he kind of said Gavin Newsom's never going to make it. But I would say the bad news that goes with that is the leader now is AOC. So I think, or at least close to, I mean, it looks like Polymarket is putting Newsom's odds of winning the White House at 7%. And leading the Democrats is AOC at 13%.

Wow.

So AOC certainly is emerging as the potential candidate, I would say.

I wouldn't mind the mud wrestling between AOC and Kamala, figuratively. Just to watch those 2 great minds debate each other would be like, oh my God, can you guys think of it? Kamala and AOC debating each other. Oh my God, I can't even imagine how amazing that would be.

I'm also just imagining whatever men are involved in that primary and what their reaction's going to be watching these 2 women battle it out.

I mean, who else do you have? Ro Khanna, Pritzker, maybe—

Senator Jon Ossoff is right behind AOC.

Oh, is he?

So I think that's the 3rd or maybe 2nd place candidate at this point.

I just want to see Kamala and AOC. I want to see like the chicks fight it out because they're so like chicks, you know, chicks rule. But they— you all hate each other anyway, so, you know, the, the feminists are ruining women's lives every day. So it would be amazing.

The thing about the Democratic Party though is that they always pick who they're going to elect, who, who their candidate is behind the curtain, and then they put it out there. So I don't know if they have decided, But in my take, and Erica, I would have to disagree with what you just said and with Owen, that I really think it's Newsom.

You do?

With AOC underneath. Oof. So I don't think they're going to go Kamala again because they kind of— she almost backed her.

Yeah, I don't think they'll pick Kamala either.

So I think that they choose and then the rest of the party just follows.

And you know what, Democrats should be pissed. I mean, look, they, they shoved Kamala down their throats for the last one. Oh, sorry. Um, but it's like, you guys have no say in like voting. It's like, here's who you're getting, we're gonna pretend your vote matters, just go. Here's Biden, here's what you're getting.

I'll just— I'll take the other side of that prediction. Maybe I'm wrong, but I do think that there's been a change in the platform and there's been a change in how A lot of the Democrats are looking at who they should run, and I think they realized that Biden was not a good candidate and Kamala wasn't even a good replacement. But I think they're probably still thinking, like, do we really want to try another white man? And they still think that way. Right.

And why not the AOC?

AOC checked all the boxes, but also has that energy. And she's— I mean, American Diva is pointing out But American Debug has been pointing out her persuasion skills are really high. Like she's she's up there. Doesn't matter. And I think she's got a shot. Yeah, maybe we'll see.

Doesn't matter to the party because the party is all about who you are in the in the in the in the hierarchy of everything. Even the GOP used to be like that, where it's like you you get to a level so you know like. Newsom waited out and gave Kamala the go-ahead, but he kind of waited to, uh, re— or like post on X what he wanted to say when Kamala came out. I knew that was the sign. I know people, some of the people inside, and he was like waiting because he thought he was next. So it's like that idea, just like Hillary was like, I am next, you know. So I just AOC is too young, um, and she is persuasive. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't argue with that. It's just that the way the DNC picks, this is— this is— watch out.

You could, you could be right, and, and, you know, past history would, would support a lot of what you're saying. I'm just saying we may be at a different point now where they're sucking wind financially. You know, the, the DNC is broke. And they're, you know, basically looked at like losers at this point. And I'm talking about from their party. And, uh, so at a certain point you have to say, okay, we got to do something different. And if AOC has the energy and if she can start doing a lot of fundraising, I think that's going to get a lot of the DNC's attention. And they may say, let's get behind the person who can actually bring in the money.

Let's remember it was Scott Adams That first told us about AOC's persuasion when she first came on the scene. And we, you know, wanted to rail against him and be like, no, don't say it. Because if Scott is saying someone's persuasive and has the presidential, uh, persuasion level, like, even though she was new then, like, he wasn't saying like, you know, now, but he saw that in her from day one. And oh man, do we know why we hated it? Because Scott was right. And we were just like, yeah, all right, she is persuasive, but we can't stand her and we don't want her to win and whatever. So, you know, Scott could see those things. Um, he even predicted that Kamala would be president one day, and she was for a couple of hours while Joe had a procedure. But I was like, Scott, stop predicting.

Or maybe for 4 years while Biden was—

Yeah, right. But I was like, every time Scott would talk about someone's persuasion and, you know, like what their potential could be, I was always like, Stop. It's going to happen if you're talking about it. And I don't want to see Kamala as president even for an hour. I don't want to see AOC running for the White House. But, you know, if there's one thing he knew, that's what he knew. And I mean, that's also how he got into politics, just pointing out the very obvious about President Trump. And, you know, and that's how we all ended up here today. So all hail Scott, let me tell you. But I don't want AOC. I don't want her anywhere near me. But I think she wants Chuck Schumer's job personally. So we'll see. I think she— I don't think she thinks she's ready for the presidency. I think she wants to run the Congress, is my opinion. But I think that there's going to be enough DEI options for the left anyway. But Gavin Newsom didn't shoot his shot when he should have, just like Hillary didn't. And they both took a bag. backseat for other people, which shows that they're not leaders and they didn't really want it. They took a backseat, they let someone else go, and then they thought they'd be anointed and they were wrong. So they're bad decision makers. So sorry, you're done.

Um, are we manifesting this? We maybe— we shouldn't manifest AOC and Newsom. Should probably be like, yeah, Fetterman can be the candidate.

I'm picturing AOC as The new Schumer personally. That's where my head's going, but we'll see. We'll see. Um, okay, you guys, so— oh, okay, reading your comments, you guys. So let's have a, uh, uh, a goodbye. Let's say I see you on Monday. But Owen, what are you doing tomorrow?

I'll be having the after party, so anybody who wants to can have a sip with me and talk about the news. You get your voice where you can talk about what we talk about here.

Or anything else, or anything else. And and SJV will keep the flow. Marcella, what's going on with you? Just working.

It's so much fun to be an attorney.

Oh, it sounds like a ball. But again, hit your timer every time you talk about it. Right now, that was probably a minute right there. All right, you guys. You know, so let's do it today. Let's post our American flags everywhere you're posting and. You know, always remember what happened today, 25 years ago. Teach our younger generation about it. They literally have no idea. And let's have a thank you to Scott and Shelley for allowing this show to continue. And I will stay and play an Akira song. But before that, let's have a closing sip. And to Scott, because We will never forget you either, Scott. To Scott.

Be useful.

Thanks, guys. Okay. Let's program reality, you guys. Let's do it.

Sounds romantic.

Oh, look at you, Marcella.

Ooh, turn down the lights.

Look at that wine bottle.

Let me show you my path toward figuring out the user interface. It's important that you know how I got there so that you could have some trust that there's something to it. When I was a kid, I was influenced, as was my mother, by the book. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. This suggested that you could somehow change your life, or maybe you were changing reality, if you could simply think positively. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. So this was It was my first introduction to the concept that maybe reality was not fixed and something that you were a victim of, but rather you could do something. There was some mechanism, some technique, some tools you could use to get some control over your environment and your life, as opposed to having it control you. Control you. And that was my first thought, that reality could be programmable in at least some simple sense. But of course, I embarked on a lifetime of exploration to find out if I could find out more about how to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positive. Led me to learn meditation. I became a trained hypnotist. Of course, mushrooms let you see the world in a completely different reality. And all of these things, from studying all the different religions to doing affirmations, which is really just visualizing what you want and writing it down every day. Visualizing what you want. Writing it down every day. And then learning persuasion. These all had the same cumulative effect of teaching me that reality was indeed far more subjective than you're led to believe. And when I say reality is subjective, I don't mean that there isn't some base reality that's real. What I mean is that we don't have access to it. In other words, you just take religion. 2 people with completely different religions can go into a store, they can shop, they can get married, have children. They don't really need to reconcile the fact that they live in different worlds. One thinks there's an afterlife, one thinks there's reincarnation, one thinks there's nothing, and yet we, we all survive and thrive and reproduce. There's nothing to suggest that our brains are the kind of brains that can understand reality. Instead, all of the evidence suggests that we can put filters, optionally and somewhat subjectively, on our reality. And the thing that we deal with is a filter. We're not dealing with the underlying reality, but our filter on it is the thing that's real to us. And you can change those filters. I'm not a believer in God. So that's the important part, and you can change them fairly easily. And if you find a filter that predicts better and makes you happier, well, that's the better filter, even if it isn't a better approximation of reality. What matters is you're happy. What matters is you're getting what you need out of life. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. Program reality. You can change those filters. Change those filters. Change those filters. How to program reality. Think positively. Think positively. Think positively. So once you accept that there's a subjective reality, you're starting to get ready to accept the user interface for that reality.

Oh, Bart, you sweet talker. Thanks, you guys, so much. Get your flags out there. Fly your freak flags for America and be useful. Be positive. Like Scott just said, think positively, you guys. It takes work sometimes, but you can train your brain to think positively like that. Just make the decision, okay? And we'll be back on Monday with A lot of news, actually, um, and some surprises for you next week. Marcela, have an awesome weekend, and everybody have a great weekend, and, um, go visit Owen tomorrow at the after-party. All right, all right, guys.

Don't forget to post your flags.

Post your flags. I'm gonna go post mine right now. Let's go. Bye, guys.