Join us as we dissect the intriguing developments surrounding Tik-Tok and its potential ban in the U.S. Learn about the discussions that hover over the social media giant and its implications on user privacy, content control, and tech domain influence. We’ll hear firsthand the emotional responses from Gen Z and the significance of tech regulation in shaping future online communications. In a contrasting narrative, we address disturbing news in media as we detail the arrest of Washington Post cartoonist Darren Bell. Grappling with issues of media ethics and legal consequences, we navigate this somber story affecting newsrooms and public
My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROAS man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.
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Dana Lash’s Absurd Truth Podcast, sponsored by Kel-Tec.
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It’s his life mission to make bad decisions. It’s time for Florida Man.
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This is funny. A Florida man who built a it’s called a spite house. And there are tons of these around the country. He built the spite house that towers over his neighbors and he’s loving it. So it’s this real skinny, narrow house. And he was apparently fighting with everybody else on the street. It’s like the skinniest little lot you could ever see. The developer refused to sell the awkwardly sized lot to persistent neighbors. And he’s 51 years old. He purchased it. This strip of land is six hundred nineteen thousand dollars. It’s a strip of land. Strip.
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690.
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That’s just the land. And the neighbors were really trying to buy it. He was refusing. And now he built this little skinny house. It’s what it’s called, the skinny house. It has two bedrooms. I don’t know why we’re showing this because this has nothing to do with this guy. But… juan throws up like a random florida thug ready for the next one i love it the guy the guy who got the property uh i can’t for the land at 619 000 so now it holds two bedrooms two and a half baths it is literally as wide as like a single car garage right And you see the strip of land. So Juan’s showing it to you on the side over here. And you can see the pool is another neighbor. The two pools are other neighbors. Either side of that white fence is his strip. And that little strip is $619,000 just for the land. So he wanted a 15-foot wide home. City officials wouldn’t do it. So he scaled it down to 10 feet in width. And it’s 19 feet tall. And it literally cast shadows over the neighbors that had fought the construction of it. He says he loves his house. They did a really nice job. I got to say, like, I wasn’t quite sure. The yard is like just garbage. It’s just like a little postage stamp. But, you know, he was actually able to make it work. So good for him. He he persevered. A Florida cop detains a man for wearing a mask in public while exercising. And OK, now we can throw it up. This is he’s who exercises dress like this. terrorists. Yeah. So they were like, okay, stop it. It’s not COVID epidemic anymore. Quit. Pull the mask down. Partners that help bring you the program. It’s our friends over at Caltech. I’m going to be broadcasting from their booth actually at SHOT Show next week, which is a private industry event. But that’s usually when they come out with Kel-Tec. That’s usually when they come out with all their new stuff. And they are coming out with some new stuff. And we’re going to be talking about it. But this is a great Florida-based company. It’s actually a great American story. And they make and innovate some really awesome things. I mean, whether it’s the P11, the P32, the P15, the lightest, thinnest double stack 9mm on the market. the fold-and-a-half carbine family of sub-2Ks, the P-50, the bullpup performance of the RDB, everything quality made right here in the U.S. of A. And again, I’ll be broadcasting next week from their booth at SHOT Show. So check out keltecweapons.com. Sign up for the newsletter so you can be the first to know everything. Follow them on social media. That’s Innovation Performance and Keltec, K-E-L-T-E-C, weapons.com. Tell them Dana sent you.
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So the Washington Post, this is the other thing I wanted to talk about. They had a cartoonist who got arrested because he’s a child pervert. This dude, his name is Darren Bell, D-A-R-R-I-N. He’s won a Pulitzer Prize. He’s a real jerk. I mean, he’s… He’s drawn stuff like going after Trump, going after conservatives, going after Republicans, not in a nice way either. I mean, I’m trying to just like trying to figure out the best way to put it. He’s just the stuff that he draws is just crude. And I gave you guys there’s one example that’s in because he’s on X. And he was basically saying that Republicans were groomers and parents are groomers and all this stuff. And he’s done cartoons where he’s called people who voted for Trump terrorists, things like that. So it’s no surprise that the guy who’s on staff at The Washington Post is arrested for having child prawn on his computer, which is I think these people should be put to death. I think if you’re a child and I don’t I don’t buy the capital L, you know, argument that I hear from some people about these pedophiles. where it’s like oh well they just had videos on there they didn’t hurt anyone no they they are you stupid they absolutely did there are kids that are that this guy creates a revenue stream for the people who make this horrid stuff so yes he’s culpable i’ll put all of them to death pedophiles should be immediately put to death Go ahead. Give him his little trial. Make it fast. You arrest him. You find it on their computer. I mean, come on. He’s downloaded this stuff. He is part of the revenue stream that keeps these these groomers doing this. Yes. Have his trial the next day. The next day, put him to death. I don’t think Darren Bell, Darren Bell’s this this crime of child pornography is you are incompatible with life on Earth. He shouldn’t be housed in a prison paid for by taxpayers. Get rid of him. Just my thought on it. Capital punishment for pedophiles. Rapists and pedophiles, capital punishment. Like, boom. No appeals. Go. I’m done with it. This is horrific. And this guy, like he had a cartoon of Trump groping Lady Liberty. I mean, the stuff that he has is super sexual in nature. It’s weird. Like the cartoons that he writes… are very sexualized. The cartoons that he draws are very sexualized. Super far left. Yeah, and he’s got, I mean, possession of child pornography. So now Darren Bell is in prison. He’s held on $1 million bond right now. And over at the Washington Post, he drew a picture of an ICE agent about to stab a child in the neck. Yeah, that’s how. So he’s been arrested. Sacramento Valley Internet crimes against children. Detectives conducted an investigation. I’m reading their statement. They got a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He had it on his computer and apparently he uploaded. He had 18 files. And they said that a total of 134 videos they found that he owned. Was he? I’m curious. Did he help make it? The videos? Good question. So this is horrible. So now he’s in prison. Washington Post. Great job, Washington Post. What’s their slogan? Democracy dies in darkness or something like that? Yeah. So you know how the media likes to do guilt by association? You can totally do that here. Yep. Dems the rules, Cain. That’s right. So this pederast, the pederast post, maybe we should just call him that instead. The pederast post with this guy. Just horrible. They had a… All these staffers, they have a decline… because of this, the layoffs, they had reporters leave for other outlets. I think some people are mad about Bezos owning it. They put together this like little petition signed by 400 employees where they wanted to meet with Bezos and they want to expand and they want him to step in. Basically, they want more money is what this is meaning. Washington Post wants more cash. And they debuted a new mission statement. So it was democracy dies in darkness. Now it’s riveting storytelling for all of America. No joke. What does that have to do? It should be just the facts. That’s what your mantra should be. Just the facts. That’s it. Not riveting storytelling for all of America. They just changed their slogan like three years ago or four years ago. Now they’re changing it again. Maybe everyone will forget that they had a pedophile cartoonist on staff who won awards for his work with the Washington Post. Maybe by changing this, people will forget. You think that’ll work? Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t think that that’s necessarily, I don’t think that that’s going to be the thing that does it. The media, I really don’t think that the media, legacy media, and we’ve been saying this forever, doesn’t have the influence that it used to. And I don’t think that it has the reach that it used to have. And I think that includes some cable news stuff as well. I don’t think that they all have the reach that they used to have. Even back during the Tea Party days, and that was some time ago, they don’t have that reach anymore. And Musk has been saying something that Andrew Breitbart said like 15 years ago, like you are the media now, the citizen journalist and Musk is saying it too. That’s true. And it goes only so far as these entities don’t have all of these suppressive algorithms cracking down on you. We’re going to talk next week. We’re going to have on Andrew Bailey, who’s the AG of Missouri. He did something very interesting. He, I’m going to bring, I’m going to bring up his statement on it. He’s filed suit because, you know, he’s trying to do as much as he can in his position as a G to take up slack, I guess, for lack of representation or action from the current administration. And he had said that he’s issuing a rule requiring big tech to guarantee algorithmic choice for social media users. Americans should control the content they consume on social media, not big tech oligarchs. Let the best algorithm win. He adds that social media companies are supposed to provide a space where users can share views, content and ideas like facilitating, right? He goes, instead, they’ve manipulated consumer social media feeds for their own purposes, exercised monopoly control over content moderation. He’s invoking his authority, he writes, under consumer protection law to ensure big tech companies are transparent about the algorithms that they use and consumers. And offer consumers the option to select alternatives. And he says with this rule, Missouri becomes the first state in the nation to enshrine transparency and accountability for big tech into law at this scale. And he goes, big tech companies who run afoul of this regulation will be held accountable. And Elon Musk responded to it and said, good idea. He said that. There should not be any selection chosen by default, and any option should not favor their content moderator over those of third parties. He has some rules here. This is a very interesting move because this is following all of this debate about Section 230 of the Federal Communications Act. So this is an interesting move. Because it establishes immediately that they are not merely facilitators of discussion. They are active in editorializing by way of algorithm. Algorithm is a form of editing. And there have already been Supreme Court cases that are saying that if you’re simply a facilitator, you are not responsible so long as you’re doing everything you can with regards to terms of service. You’re a facilitator. Like message board like back in the 90s that that formulated that case. So he’s he’s basically forcing them to redefine. Now, if they if they’re forced to define who they are within the state of Missouri for operation, then that sets a precedent. For a future to 35 because you cannot be an editorializing entity and not follow the same rules that newspapers follow and news organizations, etc, etc. So this is a very and this is a 40 chess move. It’s very interesting. We’re going to be talking to him next week about this. We got to move that we’ve got headlines coming up. With everything going on in the world right now, the economy, conflicts, the open border, spiraling national debt, the devastating inflation, it’s critical that you have a plan for diversifying and protecting your savings. And that’s why so many, including myself, have turned to precious metals like gold and silver to help protect our savings. And I partnered with the top rated precious metals company Goldco to make that happen. It’s a great company with a great reputation and they could not have made the process any easier. 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Hey, this is Todd Herman, host of the Todd Herman Show. They call me the Emerald City Exile. There are Republicans with the assigned roles of being the so-called controlled opposition. They’re there to slow President Trump down on anything to do with harming pharma, which would come through RFK Jr., because let’s just admit it’s not going to come through President Trump. Check out the Todd Herman Show every day on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It’s time for Dana’s Quick Five.
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I’m living my brat life today. I don’t know why, but I feel real brat. I hate the English language right now. Anyway, so everything’s going to be tinged with that. I’m setting you up for this headline real quick because it’s not on my list. Nancy Pelosi is going to skip the Trump inauguration ceremony. And so is Michelle Obama. Now, I was told stuff like this is ignorant, sexist, racist, bigoted, whatever, xenophobic. So that rule stands. It stands. I’m not letting it go. So you guys are all ignorant. How dare you skip? I guess you hate America. You’re spitting on the graves of our dead patriotic forefathers. You hate everything about you. Hate Eagles. You hate baseball. You hate apple pie. Show up. You don’t get any passes. The rules stems to rules. Oh, here’s a sports ball headline. I don’t even know what this means. Oh, well, I know who Jerry Jones is because it’s required before you’re allowed to come to Texas. So he is looking to hire Deion Sanders. Really? I know who Deion Sanders is. Do I get a cookie for that? I know that guy.
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I am impressed.
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Only because he was in a lot of advertising when I was a kid. That’s why I know Deion Sanders. He had some really good sponsorship deals. So anyway, could there be a Deion Sanders? Is it going to matter? No.
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There’s a conspiracy theory behind this that he’s going to draft his son Shador anyway for it to be quarterback.
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But is he like that good? Can he carry the team?
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Absolutely.
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Oh, OK, then let it happen. You know, maybe I can wear like some Dallas Cowboys stuff and not get, you know, defecated on by everybody else who follows some other team in the league. All right. PlayStation is adding smell to its games. I would imagine a game lobby smells like dirty feet, urine and stale Doritos. So maybe that’s what they’re adding into this. That smell from a game lobby. Yeah, I don’t know why. I mean, do you really want to be able to smell your way through the horrible title called The Last of Us? Really? Is that something you want to do? All of the things like I don’t know, maybe they could have things to be more streamlined or work without glitches or things like that, you know, but no, it’s going to be smell. They’re adding the smells. Is it going to make you play better? No, no. It actually might make you play worse, but they’re adding smells. The budget deficit rose in December. Yay, government spending. Let’s just spend us all into forever servitude and death. It’s now 40% higher than it was a year ago. But I was told that that old crusty man is leaving the new president a wonderful economy. Tell that to everybody. He’s got to lock up everything from tampons to deodorants in their local Target. People were stumped because somebody is leaving tomatoes on a bridge in Ireland in a bizarre trend and they can’t figure out why. Because apparently they don’t have things called cameras in Dublin and they can’t figure out how to find out why. Also, let’s see here. uh gofundme it’s also turning into a national archive of la wildfire horror stories it’s kind of sad tiktok is preparing for u.s shutdown from sunday i am not on tiktok i try i used to be like some years ago i was on social media a lot and then i just realized how much i hated looking like an influencer and so now it it is i don’t even share a lot of personal stuff and i think that’s been like that since the parkland days but um I don’t know. It’s just, it’s weird. So I don’t do, I feel like I should probably like go back and do more stuff on social, which I probably will. I’m getting there. I’m getting there. But I’ve never done TikTok. And I just, because it’s like another platform that you’re going to have another password and a whole other thing to monitor. And nobody’s got time for that. But now it may not matter because they’re going to, it’s going to be US users from Sunday. They’re not going to be, they’re going to be shut out because unless the Supreme Court moves to block it, you’re going to have a ban on it. Do you think that ban’s going to go through? I don’t know if SCOTUS is going to block it. Now, there was one. Lorraine gave me the actual name of the app. There’s no way I’m pronouncing this. There’s no way. It’s entirely made of consonants.
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Xiaohongshu? No, it’s not. Xiaohongshu? I think that’s how you’d pronounce it.
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Well, they call it Red Note. And it’s supposed to translate, she says, into Little Red Book. Like, you know, Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book. Remember? So, say it again.
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Xiao Hongshu?
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I feel like right now I’m in Mighty Boosh and I’m just going to like hold up my voice recorder, you know, like when Pocket Cup, you know, like things like that. Like Gorilla.
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Xiao Hongshu.
SPEAKER 03 :
Xiao Hongshu.
SPEAKER 05 :
Xiao Hongshu.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. So anytime I want to call, I’m going to point to you and you just say it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
So like it’s called Red Note, but it means…
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Xiao Hongshu.
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That’s right, which translates to Little Red Book. It’s Chinese-owned, though. Why are so many people excited about, we’re going to go to this. It’s not Chinese-owned. It’s Chinese-owned. If it’s an app that you can get on and be annoying, it’s Chinese. TikTok is. If it’s a bad preachy singer, they’re from Canada, like Elena Spurs. dana you’re so mean oh okay so someone was sorry i’m i don’t mean to like give you whiplash but apparently some singer i don’t know the singer a listener named adrian was like well the third one is peter forrest the original singer for 24 7 spies with a z i think he’s for him so that’s his third i don’t know that guy so he doesn’t count for me yeah It doesn’t count for us, I don’t think. So the third slot of death is still open if you’ve got a death pool going with Bob Uecker and now, sadly, David Lynch. But back to the red note thing. Why are people so hell-bent on getting on it? Why do they have to have a substitute for TikTok? Why can’t you just exist? People are freaking out. They’re freaking out. You’re making money off of something that somebody else owns. You can’t make money unless you have someone else’s product. That’s weird to me because you’re not self-sufficient as much as these people pretend they are. They’re not.
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Watching these Gen Z girls kind of freak out on TikTok in the last few days because I am on it is pretty fun to watch. How much are they freaking out? Oh, my gosh. Screaming at Supreme Court justices on their feet. It’s insane.
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Wow. Wow. Yeah, that’s something else. That is something else. Yeah, I don’t know. I could never.
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I thought we went down this road legally like a year ago or something.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, this is – well, it had to go through the courts. It’s one of those things that was like working its – yeah, it was working its way through the courts. But I mean it could be – that would be amazing actually. I get weird when the government defends or when the government wants to come in and deplatform or shut stuff down. But – I don’t know. This is not like just an app. It’s a great psyop. It’s very Sun Tzu to have an app that can be used by partisans and bots to drive division. And then you, because of your algorithm, amplify only the worst and most divisive, hateful stuff purposefully. That’s a great way to destabilize. It’s a long game, but it’s a great game because you don’t have to expend the resources or the lives without firing a single shot. So I think if you look at it more through a NATSEC lens, I think that kind of makes some sense. But that’s one of the things that the Supreme Court is going to have to determine. So we’ll see. But yeah, it’s called Red. I’m not going to get on it. I’m not getting on it. You’re not on it. You’re not on TikTok game, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ve never been on TikTok.
SPEAKER 03 :
Juan, you’re not on TikTok, are you? Nope. I don’t know why I even asked. Juan’s like, that’s communist and I’m not a part of it.
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My youngest son is on it.
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He’s not getting on that commie trash.
SPEAKER 05 :
He says he agrees. He’s still on it because a lot of his friends are on it. And they share a lot of that content. But he agrees. He’s like, it’s completely useless.
SPEAKER 03 :
What was the thing before TikTok? That everybody was on. Vine. That’s right. Vine. I was on Vine. But I haven’t used it for like 10 years. It’s been a while.
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I mean, that short video idea, that’s the meme video. That’s where that all was born, I guess.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know. But I just, I’m not on it. I’m not going to get on it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thanks for tuning in to today’s edition of Dana Lash’s Absurd Truth Podcast. If you haven’t already, make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
