Join us for a dive into the fascinating entanglements of modern business decisions with Chip and Joanna Gaines at the center of an unexpected narrative twist. How are these media moguls navigating the intersection of faith, authenticity, and expectations in crafting their brand and content? We critically examine the delicacy with which public figures must handle their foundational values in light of societal changes and audience reactions. Simultaneously, listener ears are treated to the kind of wacky Florida tales that have become iconic in pop culture, this time involving identity misappropriation for profit. The episode sparkles with quick takes
For 85 years, Connex Credit Union has been your trusted partner on life’s financial journey. Community focused, always listening and lending a hand. Here for you every step of the way. Whether you’re saving for your first home, a degree, or a rainy day, we’ve been here for 85 years, helping our community save more, growing stronger together. Connex, banking for your possibilities. Visit connexcu.org. Equal housing opportunity. NMLS 458548. Federally insured by NCUA.
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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.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. So this, I don’t know why this guy would do this. A Florida man faced $3.6 million in fines for allegedly posing as his dead father to perform 724 building inspections. That’s that’s wow. Miami-Dade and Broward, they said hundreds of inspections may have been performed by somebody that didn’t have the credentials. Enrique Fernandez Jr. was accused of using his late father’s credentials to submit as many as 724 inspection reports, project affidavits and other building reports. And, wow, he denies it. But I don’t know how you can deny that. He’s facing $3.6 million in civil fines. But so far, they haven’t filed any criminal charges yet. But it was discovered after… There were several pretty sizable building projects that underwent plumbing and electrical and mechanical inspections. And he signed his name and somebody noticed it. And that’s how it all kind of kicked off. Just like, why would you? Why? Why? It’s not something you can just, oh, well, my dad did it. This is not like a family business that you can pick up. You got to go and good heavens. Good heavens. Florida man robbed a store dressed as Spider-Man. That makes sense. I mean, he wasn’t content with just wearing the mask. I mean, he had to go for the whole thing. He showed up to a Winn-Dixie Wine and Spirits store, and he stole $150 in liquor, $420 in Newport cigarettes. That seems like a lot, but aren’t cigarettes expensive? They are. So that’s probably like, what, one carton or something? I don’t know. Newport? Yeah. That is something I’ve not heard of in a long time.
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150.
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How do you steal more in cigarettes than liquor? Anyway, he’s a repeat offender. I just find it interesting. You dress up as Spider-Man. You steal Newports and liquor. More Newports than liquor. Okay. All right. There you go. Yeah. All right. A Florida man. If I can pull this up. He was arrested in an Atlantic Beach drug house raid. And he insists that he didn’t do anything wrong, you guys. The Atlantic Beach Police Department obtained a search warrant for a house. They received complaints from the entire community. And guess what they found when they went in? All kinds of meth and other drug paraphernalia. Tons of meth, though. William O’Farrell was arrested along with his roommate, Conley Kirkland. Are they from Ireland? He says, I’m not doing nothing. I’m just trying to survive, he said. So I didn’t even know that this was an actual charge. He’s charged with maintaining a drug dwelling. And the other guy’s charged with possession of all the meth. And he goes, he was asked if he considered that his house was a drug house. And he said, quote, no, I just rent rooms. I need the money for rent. That’s all. What people do is not my business. Well, yeah, it kind of is your business because you’re in trouble for it because it’s your business. That’s sort of how all of that works. Let’s be honest. Big Pharma profited off of your fear while silencing your voice. They controlled the narrative, blocked access to real treatments, and then told you what you could and could not take, all to protect their bottom line. Medicines like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and bendazole were all labeled dangerous and dismissed, even though millions found relief and recovery from them. This Independence Day, All Family Pharmacy is standing up for your freedom with their biggest sale of the year. You get buy one, get one free on these critical medications with a doctor’s prescription included, shipped fast and direct to your door. No corporate gatekeepers, no big pharma middlemen, no bureaucratic roadblocks. At All Family Pharmacy, all medications are made from 100% domestically sourced materials, ensuring the highest quality and safety standards you can trust. Because medical freedom is American freedom. But this offer won’t last. It ends July 13th. Visit allfamilypharmacy.com slash Dana for buy one, get one free. That’s allfamilypharmacy.com slash Dana. Take back your power and make America healthy again.
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For 85 years, Connex Credit Union has been your trusted partner on life’s financial journey. Community focused, always listening and lending a hand. Here for you every step of the way. Whether you’re saving for your first home, a degree, or a rainy day, we’ve been here for 85 years, helping our community save more, growing stronger together. Connex, banking for your possibilities. Visit connexcu.org. Equal housing opportunity. NMLS 458548. Federally insured by NCUA.
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Warning, the following ZipRecruiter radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F-words.
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When you’re hiring, we at ZipRecruiter know you can feel frustrated, forlorn even, like your efforts are futile, and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
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Fortunately, ZipRecruiter figured out how to fix all that. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com slash zip. With ZipRecruiter, you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite F word. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day.
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Fantastic.
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There is a big dust up right now with the games. Chip and Joanna Gaines. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Waco, but Waco is basically Magnolia territory. Like right when you get into the town of Waco, everything is about Magnolia. Here are the silos. Silo there. Good to see you. I mean, it’s Waco, Magnolia. Really, it’s just Magnolia. They’re probably going to rename it. Who knows? They it’s I mean, they own the town like they control everything in the town. Basically, it’s you know, it’s a cute cutie little town, but they’ve gotten very, very famous. They had their HGTV show and they’ve gone on to go leave HGTV and create their own media entity, which I think has been very successful. And there are a lot of people that are big fans of them. And I’ve been down. I’ve taken my mom down there before. And they’re very faithful people. They’re Christians. They’ve talked about their faith. And now they’re kind of in some hot water. And it’s not hot water the way you think it would be, right? Because they’ve previously been in trouble because they’ve been Christians, right? Now they’re accused of going woke because they feature a same-sex couple in their new series. It’s a series called Back to the Frontier on that new network they created, Magnolia Network series. It premiered on July 10th. And they, I guess, select the people that are going to be on the show and And they, I haven’t seen it, the show, but they go to the frontier. That sounds like camping. That’s too close to camping to me. And you guys know how I feel about that sidebar. If you’re unfamiliar with it, we invented the house as a people. I don’t like appropriating my ancestors way of living because we have all of these new innovations and, you know, I mean, I hate modernity, but I love electricity and hot water. So, you know, there we go. So anyway, they have a Texas couple that appear on the show with their two sons and their, their two men. And they’re one of the three couples, they live like 1800s homesteaders. Sidebar, sidebar again, sorry. There’s no social media in the 1800s, so that probably, that’s a big selling point for me. Would you like to get away from influencers selling you the exact same stuff that you can find at HomeGoods? Yes, you do. Want to get rid of, okay, you want to get away from all the white, okay, let’s go be homesteaders in the 1800s. So they… They’re getting a lot of heat because they featured the same-sex couple in their show as one of these three couples, right? They’re getting a lot of heat for it. And to the point where you have the American Family Association that has, Babylon Bee has said something about it, American Family Association. There are people that are concerned because they expected the gains to continue to upholding biblical values and make that part of what their work is. And the AFA said, quote, it’s sad and disappointing because they’ve been very influential in the evangelical community. They’ve stood firm on the sanctity of marriage, etc. Said they’re not sure why they’ve reversed course. And the comments have been very interesting. They’ve gotten a lot of heat in the past. I don’t know for not having gay couples on their shows. Like when they were doing their house flip, the show where they flip the houses. Apparently they had never had like a gay couple on their show and they were getting heat for that. I don’t know if this is to maybe satiate some of those criticisms. But I do think that it poses a problem for them. And here’s why. I think it poses a problem for them because, first off, I think that they need to handle it better on social media. Social media is a poor place to mitigate things. Number one, especially of this nature, because everybody’s immediately defensive because social media by entering it is a defensive place. That’s why everybody’s miserable. Everybody only wants to show you the pretty curated side of things because everybody’s so judgmental. Social media is where people go, especially Instagram. And they they they want to either jealously lurk or they want to flex. It’s like one of the two. So that’s why I hate social media. It’s why I’m not as active on Instagram as I used to be because I just can’t. It’s just that I can’t. I don’t know. But they have been getting a lot of criticism from a lot of pretty influential people on the right. I think the problem that they have is when they started building their new business, when they started in this industry, they really came out very strongly as a Christian family and a Christian couple, and that’s how they promoted themselves. They talked about faith. They talked about family, family values, and their work as kind of like a mission, basically, like an extension of their ministry, so to speak. And they really leaned into that. And that’s great. The problem is there are certain demographics that when you lean into, you can’t compromise it after you lean into it. If you’re going to go the evangelical route, if you’re going to go the Christian route, you cannot temper it by including a same-sex couple. Because A, that’s not your base. And it’s not your base. And B, it looks inconsistent. And authenticity… If there’s anything that we’ve learned with the advent of social media and oversharing is that authenticity is king. People like authenticity. They are gravitating away from the highly stylized curated stuff and they just want the real thing. They want authenticity. This looks highly inauthentic. It does kind of seem like they’re doing it. And as a way to maybe insulate themselves against some of the criticisms they have received and I’m just speculating for on my part here because I don’t know why they would do it I mean there’s certain things you can be as loving as you want to and it has nothing to do with being mean or loving you know a lot of Christian people. They think, well, you know, there’s multiple different kinds of sin. And one of the reasons that people, you know, try to speak about it is because they love people and they want people to be able to join them in heaven. And that’s, you know, I remember Penn and Teller. I think it was Penn who had said, because he’s an atheist, and he had said that he actually, of all of his friends, he loves his Christian friends. And he was saying that someone asked him if he was ever annoyed that they were trying to, like, witness to him. And he said, no, I would be mad at them and think they were inauthentic if they didn’t. Because… They if they really believe this and they really believe in this kind of life after death. And why wouldn’t you want someone that you care for to take part in that? And so they’re reaching out to me so that I can experience that. And he and he had said that that was, you know, it it really he he kind of uses that as a basis to determine someone’s validity and their belief set. And I think that makes a lot of sense. And I apply that to this situation as well. And I think that Christians, especially those who have followed the Gaineses this entire time, they have every reason and justification to question, why are you doing this now? It would be one thing if they started and they came out as, what am I thinking? Not agnostic in terms of belief, but agnostic in terms of their content, what they talked about their content and the perspective through which they wanted to show you their content. Yeah. And they didn’t take that route. And that’s why it feels like a 180 to so many of their base. Because now it kind of seems like, regardless of where you’re at, it kind of seems like they’re doing it. It would be like, you know, it would be like a gay couple all of a sudden, you know… Going back on and going the other way. It just it’s inconsistent. It doesn’t make sense, especially if you’ve built your career on this. Right. It would be like that show Queer Eye for the straight guy just having like all straight stylists or something. You know what I mean? It’s just different. Why would you why would you flip like that with your base? And I think that this is what a lot of people are asking questions on. And I’ve never met Chip and Joanna Gaines. I know his sister. And they’re the sweetest family. And I don’t think that anybody’s doing this or having this position or expressing defense of their position out of meanness or cruelty. But I do think that he’s coming across as a little bit too defensive on social media. And you’ve got to be careful with that because social media does not allow for a lot of nuance. And when you seem overly defensive, you seem hostile. And you really want to avoid that, especially as it concerns this topic. And what I get from them is they’re saying that, you know – This is it’s about showing love and it’s about, you know, showing, you know, including people showing love or whatever. And this is the defense that he has given in a couple of different tweets. I understand the Christian criticism of it, that you don’t show love by mainstreaming what the Bible has declared to be a sin. And you don’t show love and acceptance by making someone easy in a behavior that goes against the scripture you claim to uphold. And I understand the criticisms that these individuals have. And that’s not the media misrepresenting it. And it’s not these people misrepresenting their intentions. You cannot create an entire industry based on faith and as an extension of your faith and then be seen as compromising it to the people who help build your business. That’s the real problem here. And it does seem like whenever people get to a certain point in success that that tends to happen. It is very, very hard to stand your ground. And there’s all different types of ways that people try to use to justify it. But it is a very unpopular thing to say that the Bible says what it says. And that’s what the Bible says. If people have a problem with it, they can take it up with God, not the people who are reading the Bible and just simply repeating what it says. It has nothing to do with a feeling of hatred or anything else. Again, you either believe or you don’t. You don’t get to pick and choose what parts of Scripture you want to believe and what parts of Scripture you don’t. And everybody falls short, by the way, of perfection. There’s no such thing. I mean, that’s why, you know, churches are oftentimes viewed as a spiritual hospital, so to speak. But… I don’t know what their motivation for doing this is, but it doesn’t look good. And I think they need to find a different way to address it than what they’re doing now, because this is going to really hurt them, especially now with younger generations being more conservative and demanding more authenticity and consistency.
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This is a really bad sign.
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For 85 years, Connex Credit Union has been your trusted partner on life’s financial journey. Community focused, always listening and lending a hand. Here for you every step of the way. Whether you’re saving for your first home, a degree, or a rainy day, we’ve been here for 85 years, helping our community save more, growing stronger together. Connex, banking for your possibilities. Visit connexcu.org. Equal housing opportunity. NMLS 458548. Federally insured by NCUA.
SPEAKER 05 :
Warning, the following ZipRecruiter radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F-words.
SPEAKER 07 :
When you’re hiring, we at ZipRecruiter know you can feel frustrated, forlorn even, like your efforts are futile, and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
SPEAKER 1 :
F***!
SPEAKER 07 :
Fortunately, ZipRecruiter figured out how to fix all that. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com slash zip. With ZipRecruiter, you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite F word. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day.
SPEAKER 01 :
Fantastic.
SPEAKER 07 :
So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first-rate talent. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com slash zip to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don’t forget, that’s ZipRecruiter.com slash zip. Finally, that’s ZipRecruiter.com slash zip.
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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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All right. First up, Man, this one headline totally distracted me, and I apologize. Well, I’m going to just go ahead and say it. It’s a story from the New York Post that says, Did a landfill write this? Did an actual physical landfill write this? But yeah, what in the world? I don’t know. I don’t even know. But they said that, yes, you know, you don’t have to take it. They were the experts, whoever these experts are. We’re trying to say, oh, you don’t have to take them every day. You know, you don’t. It’s not really necessary. You know, maybe, you know, a few times a week. Instead, you can. Some say that you could actually spray yourself with good bacteria that neutralizes your smell making chemicals. That sounds disgusting. No, no. No. I haven’t heard of this. A hippie who lives in a landfill wrote that. That’s, I mean, that’s truth.
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Being clean, guys, is not what it’s cracked up to be.
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A gym, I think this is a gym in Britain. Of course it is. It’s a UK gym. They banned women from the age of 24 from working out during peak times. Like they banned it. A 36 year old woman reported it. They her gym banned women over the age of 24 from working out during peak hours. So the gym from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday is reserved exclusively for females aged 12 to 24. I have no idea why. Also, just because you go to a gym doesn’t mean every guy wants to hit on you. Get TF over yourselves. Not everybody wants to hit on you. And also, if you’re doing influencer stuff in the gym and hogging machinery, I would be absolutely one of the people who would bully you about it. Stop it. I don’t know why people are so ridiculous. So she’s leaving that gym, by the way. I didn’t even know. That’s horrible. Let’s see. Superman opened to 123 million. Also, a flight from London to Cancun landed in the U.S. after a fight broke out on board. We’re all real excited about that. I’m telling you. Sure. We got to tell you what Elmo did over the weekend. Stick with us. Did you guys hear what Elmo did over the weekend? Yeah, Elmo. First off, I got to say, I never thought being able to do the Elmo voice would ever come in handy. It’s like one of those weird skill sets that you just don’t ever need unless Elmo decides to do what Elmo did. I can’t even read the tweets that Elmo sent. He has almost, well, I mean, over half a million followers. Over the weekend, he began posting some provocative and offensive material. So he said, quote, This is really what he tweeted. And then he said, And then he just kept saying this over and over again. He clearly was hacked. Are you okay, Cain? Release the fires! But that’s what he did. I mean, he literally tweeted, quote, kill all Jews. Almost says some all Jews when I say it. So clearly was I can’t even read. He accused Trump of being a pedophile, basically. And I can’t even read some of this. He and he replied to a number of people using that. Same language. So all of the posts and replies later were deleted. A Sesame Workshop spokesperson confirmed, quote, Elmo’s ex-account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted the disgusting messages, including anti-Semitic and racist posts. We’re working to restore full control of the account. Today’s anti-Semitism brought to you by the letter B for bigot. Wow. So when is, I’m just curious, when is Elmo going on Tucker? Sorry. Did I say that out loud? Let me rephrase that. Let me rephrase that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. When is Elmo going to do a podcast with the Taint Brothers? Shoot. Let me try this again. Got to keep. When is Elmo going to run for mayor of New York City? There it is. Yes, I know. See, that’s where it’s I mean, I’m I’m sure me and I wouldn’t be surprised if that guy liked some of it. But yeah, his account gets hacked. I can’t even like some of this stuff. Some of it was like really in the weeds. I don’t even know. Like that’s a level of anti-Semitism that goes into the weeds that I don’t even know.
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I find it hard to believe that the Elmo account doesn’t have two-step authentication or any sort of protected.
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You didn’t know that a puppet didn’t have two-step authentication?
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Right, the puppet calling the president a puppet. Yeah, you would think he would have some security measures in place on that account like everyone else does.
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Yeah, you’d think. You’d think. So, I don’t know. It looked bad. I mean, when you have Elmo out there talking about, thank you, J-O-O-O-O-S. Yeah, it’s kind of bad. You know, I mean, I don’t know. Maybe Elmo will be invited to go and debate my friend Josh Hammer at the next symposium. Oh, my gosh. Just keeps going. Just keeps going because it can. I don’t know. I’m really actually not surprised. I was just waiting for Sesame Street to go full on, you know. From the river to the sea. You know, do all. Globalize the infantile. Do all that stuff. Just was waiting for it. Yes.
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I have a hard time believing it was hacked and it wasn’t some just emotionally and mentally ill leftist that’s, you know, near this account or that works directly with the folks tied to this account. I don’t think this is just a hack.
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I mean, it’s Sesame Street. It’s weird over there. It’s definitely weird. It started getting weird like 20 years ago, and now it’s just like it arrived. It arrived at the train station of… Where are we at? That’s where we are. It’s going to run for mayor of New York, though, for sure. I mean, he’s going to almost going to be the new mayor of New York. Like all the people who are supporting. It’s ma’am, Danny. They’re they’re going to be like, wait a minute. He’s more like Hitler than you. We’re going to go for him.
SPEAKER 04 :
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.
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For 85 years, Connex Credit Union has been your trusted partner on life’s financial journey. Community focused, always listening and lending a hand. Here for you every step of the way. Whether you’re saving for your first home, a degree, or a rainy day, we’ve been here for 85 years, helping our community save more, growing stronger together. Connex, banking for your possibilities. Visit connexcu.org. Equal housing opportunity. NMLS 458548. Federally insured by NCUA.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Supreme Court sides with parents and common sense about whether they can protect their kids from indoctrination at school. A House Democrat wants to radically overhaul Congress and the courts. Quite a temper tantrum for losing last year. And the numbers don’t lie about how much better Florida is than New York over the past 25 years. I’m Greg Karumbas, inviting you to join Jim Garrity of National Review and me each weekday for the Three Martini Lunch podcast. We’ll give you the good, bad and crazy news of the day and hopefully a lot of laughs, too. Follow the Three Martini Lunch on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
