Join us as we delve into the complexities of international leadership with a spotlight on Pope Leo XIV, whose recent public statements have sparked conversation surrounding the U.S. immigration policies. Craig Collins breaks down the contrasting perspectives and the political ramifications stemming from the Pope’s latest remarks. Additionally, the episode explores the dynamics of failed political campaigns, with an incisive look at Kamala Harris’s journey, touching upon systemic biases and rhetorical missteps that shaped public perception.
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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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That’s right, it’s time for Florida Man. This is the Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you. Let’s get right to it. Naked, not afraid is the headline of this story out of Pine Island in Florida. A deputy said a man with a history of getting naked in public decided to, this is shocking, get naked in public. The guy loves to go skinny dipping, I guess. And that’s caused issues with local police. He was running naked through a Florida neighborhood when he was arrested. The guy who is 30 years old did not have a good answer for why he was not wearing any clothing. And several different ring or other doorbell cameras caught the dude running through the neighborhood without any clothes on. That’s the moment I’d regret the ring doorbell. You know, like that’s the moment that I would have wished that something had not popped up on my phone, notified me of commotion in front of my house, and then see a dude running past my home without any clothes on. That’s one as long as he didn’t try to break into my house where I could just let it not be a notification I have and a video that I accidentally have to see for any amount of seconds. I would again regret the doorbell at that moment and that moment only because there’s other times that I like the ability to know what’s going on at my house when I’m not there. But this dude, for whatever reason, just hates wearing clothes. And it seems to be a thing that Florida is not so happy with. I love that these stories happen as often as they do. To be honest, because because my brain goes to some weird places and one of the places it goes is like if this naked dude has any friends and you wonder if he does or if there’s mental health issues and what else is going on. But let’s say he’s got like one good buddy and the guy is talking to him at a bar after his latest arrest and maybe some time in jail just trying to convince this guy to stop getting naked in public. I just wonder how that conversation goes. Like, dude, I get it. You like that sort of thing. I know it’s very illegal and it’s very creepy. You should really stop doing it, bro. You got so much going on for you in your life. I don’t know if that’s true, but his friend would say it to him. The one thing holding you back is the fact that you strip naked and run around the neighborhood and the police are very aware of you. If you could just get over that hurdle, man, you’d be a full package. You’d be all there. All right, et cetera, et cetera. That’s where my brain goes. is the one friend trying to convince this person to live a better life that is obviously failing to do that. Another Florida story. A Florida man was accused of spitting on a police deputy. This is definitely a mistake that you shouldn’t make because this is actually no assault. The Florida man is behind bars after he was accused of this in Monroe County. Robert John Hermanson is the guy’s name. He was found sleeping in a museum and nature center at 3 a.m. Deputies walk up to the guy. Say there’s no signs of trespassing, which is weird. And then tell him you’re not allowed to sleep here. He gets upset. He spits on somebody. Again, that is actually a battery and assault is how that’s usually charged. And you get in a whole lot of trouble for doing that to a police officer. So a mistake you should not make. after being caught sleeping inside a museum you should not be in in the first place. Certainly questions being asked about how the guy got in, if there were no signs of breaking and entering. Was something left open? Is he connected to the place? I don’t think that they have found any reason to believe that he is so far, but it is interesting. One last Florida story that I liked a lot. A nurse said that her wife was battered with cheesy nachos. A nurse has been accused of shoving cheesy nachos down the legging of another woman. So this is two women in a relationship together. I think that both might be nurses. But I guess in the police report, the way the description goes is that she grabbed a handful of cheesy nachos and shoved them down the back of my dress and my legs. The victim, as described in this story, is a registered nurse who, you know, went ahead and made a complaint. These are ones where sometimes I wish that common sense would have prevailed because the nacho attack that sends you to jail feels like the kind of thing that other people aren’t going to respect in the who’s gal.
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I really picked up when he said, having a mentor, we can go to and ask for advice without feeling embarrassed or without feeling proud of asking for help. Because nowadays, sometimes we can feel like if we don’t know something, we are dumb or we just are not putting our whole strength and everything in school. So asking for help without feeling proud of it or embarrassed is something that we need to learn.
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I love that you were so aware that you picked up on that.
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This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. Thrilled to be with you. DLash, DanaLashRadio and X on Twitter to stay connected to all things Dana and the show. And there’s a whole lot going on in social media that you connect with on First TV, everywhere. She’s a lot of places, very successful. All right, let’s get right into it. Pope Leo is from Chicago. This is something, and I lived in that city for many, many years. That is something that people in Chicago were very proud of. There’s a debate as to whether he’s a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan. I think the final update is that he’s a White Sox fan. That’s all secondary to what he’s going to do as far as, or maybe not even, maybe it’s deeper on that list than secondary of what he’s going to do within the position of being the new Pope. Pope Leo XIV. His brother was tracked down by news media. I think first locally WGN in Chicago did it. And then CNN and everybody else jumped on the bandwagon. The interviews are outside the guy’s house, which has to be great. But one of the pieces of audio that went viral is Pope Leo’s brother talking about the new Pope’s position on immigration, something that Pope Leo has not been shy to share himself via social media. But here we go.
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I think he sees the United States is headed in the wrong direction in terms of immigration. That this is a total injustice. I don’t know how he would handle that. It’s a very difficult situation because you’re going to offend someone one way or the other.
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Yeah, it doesn’t seem like he’s challenging how he’s going to handle it from his brother’s perspective. I don’t know why he’d even say it that way. But Pope Leo does seem like he’s going to condemn the immigration decisions of the United States. Here’s what’s interesting to me about that. And there’s a lot of things that are. First and foremost, and I’ve said this before, just in setting the table on this conversation, the other countries of the world, countries that Pope Leo will not say he opposes, do very similar things. Most countries in Europe don’t even have the ability for someone born on their soil to claim to be a citizen. Birthright citizenship is not a thing in other places. And that’s one of the reasons we have such an immigration problem in this country is that people believe if you can get here and then you can have kids here, the kids can stay. And that’s something that people do for several reasons. The anchor child, as you’ve heard before, if that went away, which Trump is trying to make it go away, if those things go away, though, immigration would change. And we’re already seeing a tremendously different border than we saw during Biden’s term in office. And that’s what’s so interesting to me. That’s what’s so important about some of these discussions. The way that people in places of power, whether it be the Pope or anyone else, choose to have positions about things that are in the public conscious and then not talk about the other stuff going on other places. But the United States’ new approach to, I don’t know if you call it new, but the approach that Trump has wanted to take and did take the first time he was in office, but different from the Democratic approach, is to be more like European countries that, again, the Catholic Church has no problem with. So that’s interesting to me. But beyond that, too, I think just trying to politicize these things, this is the best way to say it. I’m a Catholic. I’m a person of faith. So I want that to be at the forefront of what I’m about to say. I don’t look to certain places for certain information. And I think that most of us do this. And what I mean by that, and I’m not telling you just shut up and dribble, do whatever you want if you’re a famous athlete, but I don’t turn on… you know, ESPN for their update on, you name the sports athlete, to hear about what he thinks of Donald Trump. That’s not where I get that information. I also don’t look to my faith to tell me political things. That’s not a discussion that I’m trying to get from over there. There are some things that cross paths where they are essentially both, but this would not be one of them for me. So I don’t look that direction. So if the Pope has a position on things that I think are inherently political and not about my faith or my, you know, belief in certain things, I will let it go in one ear and out the other. I’m not saying that I’m disrespecting the person in charge of the religion that I actually, you know, follow. I’m just saying that’s not where I look for that information. There are things that I want to hear from people in charge, but it’s not those. And so I don’t pay attention to that. And I imagine a lot of people are the same way, by the way. I’m saying all of this to try to put out there that I could have a hot take. I could be anti the new pope. I could be pro the new pope. And to me, and again, this comes from being actually a Catholic, someone who is involved in this to some degree, whatever you want to call it. I don’t have that position. I know that even in the industry that I work in, I’m probably supposed to like have a hot take one way or the other. I just don’t have it because and I think, again, most people will understand and agree with this. I can tune stuff out if it’s not stuff that I’m looking for from people in positions of power of certain things. or athletes or whatever. That’s how I can still watch the NBA. I enjoy the playoffs in the National Basketball Association nowhere near as much as I used to because there is politics that just sort of gets seeped all over you. But I can tune it out enough to enjoy the games and be amazed that the Celtics can fall apart twice in a row to the Knicks and have 20-point leads disappear in the fourth quarter. That’s stuff I can still be entertained by, and I think a lot of us can do that.
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That’s right. This is The Dana Show. My name is Craig Collins filling in. D-Lash, Dana Lash Radio on X to stay connected with all things Dana Lash and her show, The Dana Show. Let’s do this first as far as quick five stories go. The world will have its first mass-produced flying vehicle. 500 successful flights of a Slovakian created car that actually has these wings that pop out of the sides. They kind of like come up like almost, you know, those high rising doors on certain vehicles. I keep thinking about the time machine and back to the future. But anyway, they then kind of disappear on the sides of the vehicle so you can drive the car. But then they get pushed out, extended out so you can fly it like a plane. There are moments in society where no matter how much I want this thing and it says it has like a 250 horsepower engine in it. I probably shouldn’t have it. And we probably as people shouldn’t buy flying cars like this because it seems like it’ll be horrible for all of us. If you can’t put down your cell phone to drive a regular vehicle, I imagine flying a vehicle into the sky will make things even worse for us. But it is there. It will exist. It will be incredibly expensive. It won’t be on the road very much in the next few years. But a mass produced flying car has been created. And again, my immediate reaction was I want one. I want one real, real bad. All right. Other things out there. U.S. life expectancy studies show Southerners barely living any longer than those born in the 1900s. So there is a difference in the life expectancy depending on where in the United States you live. West Coast residents gained decades of life over the last century, especially women who live on the West Coast. And the rest of us are not doing so great, especially, again, in the South. There’s a bunch of reasons for this, they say, many of them just simple diet related. One of the things that I think is really interesting, though, and I couldn’t get over it, is the idea that you have less stress because the people around you agree with you. If you live on the West Coast, especially as a woman, you might be in circles of people who have similar political feelings that you do and other things. And just not arguing or getting mad as often as maybe someone does who has more discussions with other people. Although there is a lot of uniform thinking in other parts of the country. I’m not trying to say there aren’t. But part of me wonders. If maybe that’s uniquely beneficial for the side that seems to be outraged much more often than the political side of the aisle that would live in a whole lot of the rest of the country. I’m not sure, but that seems to be a benefit. Also, and I live in Texas now, I like steak and I’m not giving it up. No matter what you tell me about how bad it is for my health, I’m not going to do it. And I really don’t care. All right. Other things out there as far as quick five go. A half-ton spacecraft lost by the Soviets in 1972 is coming home. We don’t know where it’s going to land, but this spacecraft is going to crash land on Earth at some point in the very near future. That’s just an odd story to see. And to think about that we fire these things up there. Comos 482, it was headed to Venus. It’s expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend. We’re, again, not exactly sure, although we think it won’t be harmful where it’s going to land, at least for now. So that’s good news, bad news. as far as this situation goes. But again, they do believe it will actually survive reentry, which is something a lot of spacecrafts no longer are supposed to do. But we will see how that goes, and then we will compare it to SpaceX and how much better Elon Musk is at having stuff return safely after firing it up into space than back in the 70s when we were just flinging stuff up there, especially the Russians were just flinging stuff up there and then hoping for the best years later, which is what it looks like is happening here. Everyone is cheating in college, according to a brand new study. Chat GPT or other AI is being used. AI is being told to not seem like AI so that a teacher using a detector of some kind will fail. That’s another thing that’s weird that’s out there. You can tell the AI to write a paper more like a human would and even purposefully make a few mistakes so that you don’t even have to rewrite it. But everyone is cheating is what they’re saying now. When the… Discussion about the value of a college education and the potential indoctrination to believe certain things from these elite universities exists out there. It’s really interesting to see that people are also cheating their way through probably something they’ve done before in order to get that piece of paper that claims that you’re more qualified for a job than you actually are. And then you start out knowing even less, it seems, than the guy who’s been working for five or six years and is slowly progressing his way up the ladder. It’s just interesting to see that now most people in that world, and I have a college education, are just cheating their way through it, baby. Because why does it matter? I just need the piece of paper. That’s all I’m looking for. Here is what Biden said about why Harris lost the election, which is amazing. And this has gone viral since the interview yesterday in which he said this.
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and it was like 2016 all over again. So why do you think the vice president lost and were you surprised?
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I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president. She is. She’s qualified to be president of the United States.
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She is not. Sorry, continue.
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But I was surprised. I wasn’t surprised because they went the route of the sexist route all over. Oh, my God. This is a woman. She’s this. She’s that. Really, I’ve never seen quite as successful and a consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country and a woman of mixed race.
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You know what’s amazing about this? The first thing I want to say is that the premise of that statement, me, you, whoever is out there that’s a voter that didn’t vote for Harris that voted for the evil, horrible Donald Trump. We did it because we hate women, or we hate people of certain races. It can’t possibly be that I’m intelligent enough to compare the two messages, to want an improved economy, want savings within the federal government, which Doge did a great job of so far, but I’d love to see a lot more done. I can’t want any of those policies. I have to just in my brain be like, no, I can never let a woman or someone of color be our president, even though Barack Obama was president for eight years in this country. I can’t let that happen is what they think I’m yelling in my mind. And so I go out and I vote for anybody. It wouldn’t even have to have been Trump. I could have voted for anyone just to prevent Harris from winning. That’s insane. And there’s so much of that insanity that exists out there. And so I resisted doing this earlier. I’m going to do it now. This is a super cut of things that Harris said during her short tenure as a candidate for president, one in which she didn’t even win a nomination. She didn’t go through a primary process in order to be selected by her own party. That didn’t happen. The voters didn’t get a chance to choose because, darn it, a whole lot of people knew that Harris wouldn’t do well debating other Democratic politicians because of this speaking in circles thing that became the true narrative and the true thing that everyone was consuming on social media. I have friends that vote Democratic. I lived in Chicago for years. I’ve lived in other big cities. I have people that don’t agree with me politically that I somehow still talk to. And one of my favorite things is the amount of those individuals during the political campaign that were sending me crazy broken videos of Harris being like, man, how do I vote for this? This is this is terrible or this makes no sense. How do I punch this ticket? And it had nothing to do with whether or not she was a man or a woman or what race she was. These were even women that would say this sort of stuff, not just dudes. So I again love that that it had to be sexist. It couldn’t have been this.
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Dick Cheney and Satan. That’s next.
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The Sith Lord is back.
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Like a demon, it rises again. Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, Satan. Thank you.
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Hold on, hold on. I hit play on the wrong piece of audio, but I do love this audio. I think Kamala Harris is in that audio calling Dick Cheney the Dark Lord as he said that he was going to endorse Donald Trump. That is not the supercut I meant to play, but that is a supercut that I enjoy quite a bit. So let’s get to a different one, a one where Harris just speaks in circles and loops and craziness because that’s what she did all the time. And you remember it and I remember it. And this is why she failed to be the next president of the United States, not because she’s a woman or a person of color. And Dick Cheney, also the Dark Lord, did go ahead and endorse Trump. I love that I had that. All right, here we go.
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It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. We must together, work together, to see where we are, where we are headed, where we are going, and our vision for where we should be. Because we have the ability to see what can be. Oh, yeah. Unburdened by what has been. That’s right. And then to make the possible actually happen. To see what is possible. To see what can be. unburdened by what has been, to reject the notion that the way things have always been has to be the way things will continue to be? I have a motto. What? I drink, I eat and drink no for breakfast. I eat no for breakfast. I eat no for breakfast. There is no vaccine for racism. The climate crisis represents an existential threat to who we are as a species. Talking about the significance of the passage of time.
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Oh, it’s one of my favorites.
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Right. The significance of the passage of time. So when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time.
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OK, I got to stop. This is why she lost. This is why she wouldn’t have even won a primary. You know it. I know it. They know it. But they need to, you know, mobilize the troops to convince you that something horrible and nefarious happened because the right is a bunch of just terrible people. That’s the only way they can process this. So instead, Biden goes on television and says the reason they lost, even though he absolutely fought, and tried not to let her be the candidate himself. He wanted to stay in that gig, as we all know, and even did interviews right up until he stepped down, where he said he was defiantly not stepping down. And then Nancy Pelosi pushed him into the corner and didn’t let him run for president, which is crazy. But nonetheless, as all this is going on, we know the real reason she wasn’t a good candidate. And I’ll say this, not because I think she actually would have beaten Donald Trump, but she would have performed better than Harris. Michelle Obama was the true Democratic candidate that people wanted, that I think voters and the Democratic machine wanted, at least on that side of the aisle. Obviously, the right wouldn’t have wanted to see that. And what are the things that are… In common between Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris, they both happen to be women of race and women in general. And so it’s interesting to be told that a woman can’t win and, you know, someone of a certain race can’t win when there was a candidate out there that media was begging to run because they thought she was a shoo-in to win. Again, I don’t think she actually would have beaten Trump. I think those debates would have been interesting. But nonetheless, I do think that it was easy to find a candidate more significant, more, you know, potentially capable of winning than Harris. Harris was the forced candidate for a bunch of reasons. Most of those money. I should say that, too, by the way, before I move on. I believe the biggest reason the Democratic Party allowed Harris to truly be the candidate was not because they wanted her to be, but because legally she was the only individual who could take all of Biden’s donations since she was on the ticket with him and use them for her own campaign. If they had not done that, if they at the last minute, the last hour, given anyone else the chance to run other than Harris, that person would have had to raise funds differently and wouldn’t have been able to use a lot of the war chest that had already been created for the Biden campaign. But shifting that money over because she was the VP, and I think some people would argue that that actually was legally done, was something they did. That was the biggest reason. Money was truly it because I think Democrats knew she was not a good candidate and hadn’t been a good vice president for several years because as the light shined brighter on her, things that she said and did seemed crazier and crazier.
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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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