Says Who?

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S METH

Episode Summary

The president is on drugs. What could possibly go wrong?

Episode Notes

It’s 21 days until the election at the time of recording. Dan and Maureen have gotten into the groove, now. They’re battle hardened. Do you think those two chumps from 2016 could have handled COVID Trump? They could not. This new Dan and Maureen can.

Kind of. Well, they aren’t crying as much as usual.

The President is on a lot of drugs and is flying around the country, like some kind of 70s rock star. Maureen knows a lot about those. Trump has big 1973 energy. Also, Maureen would like to know how election night is going to play out, but Dan will not tell her. Goddammit, Dan.

Pass to the left, SaysWhovia. It’s almost time to vote.

Episode Transcription

Dan:

This episode of Says Who is brought to you by you. Your support of our patriotic patrion.com/sayswho. Which is where every Sunday you've got a whole other episode of Says Who. You see how I don't say every Sunday of quarantine anymore?

 

Maureen:

Oh my God.

 

Dan:

What's the point. What do words mean? Where every Sunday you got a whole other episode of Says Who if you are a $5 a month or above backer, patreon.com/sayswho.

 

Maureen:

(singing) Just a little stinger, a little musical stinger on the end of that.

 

Dan:

I like it. I like that. It was nice.

 

Maureen:

(singing)

 

Dan:

Wow. That was amazing. I can't follow that up.

 

Maureen:

No.

 

Dan:

If you want stuff from us, you can go to merch.sayswhopodcast.com. We've got stuff.

 

Maureen:

Stuff.

 

Dan:

Stuff.

 

Maureen:

All right Dan I think they know stuff. They've got it.

 

Dan:

Stuff. They got stuff.

 

Maureen:

[Goddammit 00:01:31] Dan, they know about the stuff. Just shut the fuck up about stuff who want's that stupid stuff anyway. Goddammit.

 

Dan:

All right, Maureen, are you ready? Are you ready? Says Who we're two weeks out from the election. You ready? Lots to discuss.

 

Maureen:

Is there?

 

Dan:

You ready to go. You ready? It's time.

 

Maureen:

Dan, I don't want to.

 

Dan:

We got this, it's [inaudible 00:02:02] it's go time.

 

Maureen:

Is it?

 

Dan:

Selection time. We're in the shoot. We're in the zone.

 

Maureen:

I don't want to be in the [inaudible 00:02:09].

 

Dan:

Ready.

 

Maureen:

Dan, you want to hear my idea for this episode?

 

Dan:

Sure, sure.

 

Maureen:

Let's take a nap.

 

Dan:

I mean, that's...

 

Maureen:

Just take a nap.

 

Dan:

I bet you don't really need the podcast for that.

 

Maureen:

Oh well for that we'll just play relaxing music for an hour.

 

Dan:

Some [inaudible 00:02:31].

 

Maureen:

(singing) Wake up.

 

Dan:

This Says Who. (singing) Welcome to Says Who, the podcast that isn't a podcast.

 

Maureen:

It is a coping strategy. I'm Maureen Johnson.

 

Dan:

And I'm Dan Sinker.

 

Maureen:

I was disrupting the rhythm.

 

Dan:

I like that. It's really, it was a different feel. It was very different feel. It's good.

 

Maureen:

Yes. Just got to break it a little bit.

 

Dan:

We got to mix it up here. Here's the end of times.

 

Maureen:

It's our routine. Are you noticing a certain rigidity to your home routine because you never go anywhere?

 

Dan:

Yes, I am.

 

Maureen:

I kind of like it. I think is I kind of like it a little bit.

 

Dan:

Yeah. I...

 

Maureen:

[inaudible 00:04:07] 12:06 time to get a glass of water. Wow. [inaudible 00:04:11] the scintillating things we do.

 

Dan:

The old 12:06 water break. Who doesn't love that? I think of it fondly at 12:07 when it's over.

 

Maureen:

Yeah, it doesn't last. You can't have that kind of fun forever.

 

Dan:

That's the thing. If you had a water break forever it would merge into a pee break and then you'd just be a closed loop for the rest of your life.

 

Maureen:

Just peeing all over the place.

 

Dan:

Drinking and peeing.

 

Maureen:

Oh, wait, I think my box set it out today Dan, I should have mentioned. I think it's available today. You'd like box it of truly devious the vanishing stare in the hand of the wall and he's super dope box it that makes a really cool gift. It really does.

 

Dan:

It's out now.

 

Maureen:

Yeah. If you're looking for a gift at the 25 to $30 price point for somebody that is just a set of books. It's like more than a book. It's like a nice and it's super cool looking, That's something you could do.

 

Dan:

I like your pitch. It's more than a book.

 

Maureen:

It's three books. In a box.

 

Dan:

It's good.

 

Maureen:

The box is cool.

 

Dan:

Who doesn't see the inherent value in that.

 

Maureen:

It's a pleasing shape and it will be very easy to wrap, which is also something I like. It's just a good shape.

 

Dan:

It is. This is the kind of scintillating stuff that comes out of that 1206 water break.

 

Maureen:

I'm almost done though. Today is a coconut sparkling water. There was a shortage Dan, and there was a CO2 shortage.

 

Dan:

Yeah. You can't get a, if you have one of those soda streams or whatever-

 

Maureen:

I do. It's all I drink.

 

Dan:

Yeah. You can't get that shit.

 

Maureen:

I know.

 

Dan:

I get it.

 

Maureen:

It's a problem.

 

Dan:

It's been a run. There's been a run. I had the realization the other day that all of this, this lock in and Zoom school and everything else has not necessarily gotten better, but it has gotten normal. As you mentioned, I am very used to it at this point. I don't know that that's a good thing, but it sure shows our ability to adapt.

 

Maureen:

Dan, were you on Twitter at all yesterday?

 

Dan:

No, I'm never on Twitter.

 

Maureen:

Okay. Because it turns out yesterday there was a news story about something went a little bit wrong on a Zoom call.

 

Dan:

We're doing this.

 

Maureen:

I guess.

 

Dan:

I didn't.

 

Maureen:

I don't really want-

 

Dan:

Really want to do this, but okay.

 

Maureen:

We could... It's just...

 

Dan:

It's okay.

 

Maureen:

I mean, let's do a very polite version.

 

Dan:

Okay. There was a Zoom whoopsy.

 

Maureen:

There was a Zoom whoopsy. Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker writer, frequent talking head on television. CNN commentator was on a Zoom call prepare I guess a, was it debate preparations or?

 

Dan:

It was the new Yorker and I believe WNYC and they were running some sort of electoral simulation to prepare themselves for the election and possible outcomes and how to cover them. And then out came Jeffrey's Toobin.

 

Maureen:

Oh, Oh, Dan how... I mean, I don't think...

 

Dan:

You're the one that brought us here.

 

Maureen:

That's pretty good.

 

Dan:

You drove the bus. I just punched the ticket. That's all.

 

Maureen:

I don't regret that at all. Yeah. I mean, somehow he got mixed up on which Zoom call he was on apparently and in a 10 minute break.

 

Dan:

Yeah. Yeah. It's gross. I don't know why we're here [and 00:08:27] we leave here.

 

Maureen:

Don't cross those streams. You know what I mean?

 

Dan:

No, no.

 

Maureen:

I don't think he's good at multitasking.

 

Dan:

I mean, apparently he's better than most.

 

Maureen:

I guess you could really argue it either way.

 

Dan:

Yeah. I spent a lot of time on a Zoom call worrying that I look funny. I don't know why, I don't really know how you would get over that hump to be like, not only do I not look funny but I'm feeling a little tingly.

 

Maureen:

I got 10 minutes.

 

Dan:

Why not? I don't want to be here. I don't want to do, I don't. I would rather talk about anything, the elections is in two weeks, right?

 

Maureen:

Yeah. Don't you find that, I mean, I've said, what? Two weeks ago that, back then I said we're right now as in two weeks ago, we're in the very calmest best time.

 

Dan:

Yeah.

 

Maureen:

That was before or after Trump got COVID?

 

Dan:

it was before.

 

Maureen:

Was it before?

 

Dan:

It was right before.

 

Maureen:

It was seconds before or something.

 

Dan:

I think it was a potentially right after the first debate and right before the COVID diagnosis. When you said that right then was simply the best.

 

Maureen:

That's right. Because we recorded Wednesday morning.

 

Dan:

Yeah. And then by that Thursday, we were in Trump COVID land. [inaudible 00:10:06].

 

Maureen:

Dan do you feel like it's a little quiet?

 

Dan:

Right now is quiet?

 

Maureen:

Yeah.

 

Dan:

Well.

 

Maureen:

Did something happen in my brain?

 

Dan:

I mean, I think that absolutely nothing. Well, let me rephrase that because I am sure I just jinxed us by word. I apologize to the fates here. Let me quickly gut this goat.

 

Maureen:

Oh, no. [inaudible 00:10:51]. Hold on. I got to clear you [inaudible 00:11:00]. My special bell, hold on.

 

Dan:

Oh, there you go. That sounds nice.

 

Maureen:

This is the bell I used for the exorcism that I did in 2006.

 

Dan:

That worked well.

 

Maureen:

Okay. There we go. Hey guys, I got rid of that.

 

Dan:

All right. What I was attempting to say is it is hard for me to imagine anything that could occupy as much space in our collective brains than the President of the United States suddenly getting COVID. And then in short order the world's just shittiest coffee is dominoes falling over everyone around him getting COVID. It feels, I think that your assessment was correct, but it did not assume that literally the next day, the fucking most bananas possible thing would happen. And so everything feels smaller than that. But as we'll discuss in a few this week alone has not been without its bananas.

 

Maureen:

Oh yeah. We're certainly not... Yeah, that particular weekend from the time that he got sick, I definitely felt, I keep a little journal here in my little book. And then I just have little notes about, for example, on the 5th of October I know that I just didn't sleep. I have one note on the second that says Trump gets COVID on the work I was doing, had some symptoms in the evening. And then I just wrote parentheses too much news.

 

Dan:

Yeah. Is sounds right.

 

Maureen:

So I have little notes about, so right then through on this... And then by the ninth, the only note that I have no work notes or anything, it just says, this is genuinely quite a stressful time to be fair. And then apparently around the ninth to the 10th, it was the eighth, the ninth to the 10th is when my brain really seemed to snap back in again. So I was kind of keep a little record of what that felt like. And I think it was so disorienting that it just totally toppled my ship for a week.

 

Dan:

Yeah. It makes everything that has followed feel very different than had that moment not passed I think. To be very clear, we are two weeks out from election day and as many people will point out to me repeatedly whenever I mentioned that there was a day that we collectively as a nation call election day, the election is already underway and in fact it is wildly underway.

 

Maureen:

It really [inaudible 00:14:26] doesn't it Dan?

 

Dan:

It's just come on. It's not like there is not a day that we call election day. It would be like being like, Oh, Christmas is the 25th. And then somebody being like, actually the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving. It's like, fuck off talking about the same fucking thing we're on the same team here. Anyway, the election is very much underway. Texas is over 50% of the total turnout number for 2016. Total number of people that voted in 2016, they are over 50% of the way to that number. Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, bunch of other States are over 30% already. We are seeing numbers like we have never seen before. And so that I think also sort of has some level of effect here because it is not like we are all sprinting towards a single day anymore. That there is sort of, we are at a point of amped up activity to the level that is now normalized. That now feels pretty normal. It also kind of creates a different sense of anxiety I would say, than if we were just looking at polls.

 

Dan:

Now we are also looking at voter turnout stuff. And we don't really know what any of it means. This could turn out, could be because there is just a wild amount of voter enthusiasm and that we are going to see unprecedented levels of votes period. That the majority of people that don't vote have woken up and vote, maybe that's what we're seeing. But it could also be that there's a fucking virus happening and people are trying to get their vote done as they see numbers climb. And so they're either getting in lines early or they're mailing the shit in. So that there is just a general earlier turnout, but the same number we don't know. And I don't think we will know for a bit because it's going to take a while to count the male votes. So it's like, we don't know where we are right now. So this is all a way of saying, I don't think that we are going to see that kind of ratcheting up week by week. Instead, we're just sort of in this PERMA ratchet now. Where things are nuts. We do have debates happening on Thursday, apparently.

 

Maureen:

Maybe.

 

Dan:

After canceling the last one.

 

Maureen:

I don't know.

 

Dan:

I also don't know. But at least at this point, Trump has not withdrawn. He withdrew from the last one because he didn't want to do it virtual. It's in [inaudible 00:17:28] city, that one. But the commission for presidential debates announced last night that they are going to mute mikes. So we'll see how that goes. They announced that the topics that will be discussed fighting COVID-19, American family's, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership. And the Trump campaign-

 

Maureen:

We finally got climate change in there.

 

Dan:

Yeah. The Trump campaign issued a very long missive about how none of those topics have to do with foreign policy, which is a choice. And that was before the mike muting announcement came. I have yet to see a missive from them about mike muting, but I'm sure it will come. You've got Trump traveling now near constantly from rally to rally, similar to kind of how he did pre COVID clearly still on something, that dude's dancing a lot. I don't need to see that many videos of Trump dancing.

 

Maureen:

Can I ask a question Dan?

 

Dan:

I guess.

 

Maureen:

How do you think he is?

 

Dan:

In what sense?

 

Maureen:

Well, he was diagnosed with COVID 20 days ago.

 

Dan:

Yeah. He was.

 

Maureen:

[inaudible 00:19:04] that was under three weeks ago.

 

Dan:

Indeed.

 

Maureen:

And then was hospitalized, was basically given kind of doctor strange spiderman levels of treatment. I don't think Dr. Strange actually got treated, but you know what I mean? It just kind of, some kind of through the looking glass. We're going to bring, well, who's a superhero that was sort of brought back to life. Was that the Hulk somebody was.

 

Dan:

Yeah. You know? Sure. I don't remember

 

Maureen:

Wasn't there a superhero that was brought back to life? We can rebuild him.

 

Dan:

Okay.

 

Maureen:

Come on. There must have been a superhero.

 

Dan:

Yeah. Sure. I mean that could be the Hulk. He was certainly like shot with gamma rays, I don't know.

 

Maureen:

Is that it?

 

Dan:

What is this? Some fucking superhero podcast? Come on.

 

Maureen:

All right. I just want to know.

 

Dan:

What do you want? What do you want from me Maureen?

 

Maureen:

I'm just saying that he is a very out of shape person with bad lifestyle who is still 20 days out, potentially question mark, question mark, question mark from diagnosis. Every medical professional I know, and I've talked to a couple about this, they're like, they were treating him on. They were like, they were giving him stuff. This is bullshit about.

 

Dan:

Yeah. There does seem to be an ongoing mystery around when his last negative test was. And it seems that the two obvious answers for why they are being so evasive on that are either A, they basically stopped testing the President of the United States. And so they would have to say like, oh no, July. Or B, they would have to admit that he was in fact positive when the debate happened.

 

Maureen:

Which is entirely possible.

 

Dan:

Oh, without a doubt.

 

Maureen:

Yes. We don't know if he was tested. Because he wouldn't get tested at the debate.

 

Dan:

No, no. They took their word for it was what they admitted after saying that everyone would be tested ahead.

 

Maureen:

He's a trustworthy fellow.

 

Dan:

It's good. It's good. I appreciate after four years just taking them on a flyer there.

 

Maureen:

Even though he has, I guess, largely recovered from it at the same time it's not the kind of thing that's just one to done. So either, just perhaps he's being propped up with massive amounts of steroids still. I don't know how long you can take them, I would assume he's still getting pumped full of all kinds of stuff. If I had COVID 20 days ago, if I'd been diagnosed, I would be flat out.

 

Dan:

Yeah. I mean, again, I'll point to the fact that there are more videos of Donald Trump dancing right now at every rally pretty much. Then I have seen since video of him at studio 54.

 

Maureen:

I tod you Dan. Keith Moon, Ivy in the ankle.

 

Dan:

Yeah. It is something. But he seems to have decided that his real winning lines now at the rallies are to continually downplay COVID now. Even though he got it, his wife got it, we learned this week that Baron got it, and cases are now hitting new highs. We've rounded 220,000 deaths. But just yesterday, "They're getting tired of the pandemic aren't they? Getting tired of the pandemic. You turn on CNN that's all they cover. COVID, COVID pandemic. COVID, COVID, COVID. You know why? They're trying to talk everyone out of voting. People are buying it. CNN, you dumb bastards. They're not buying it."

 

Maureen:

I laughed so hard. When I read that quote Dan. I laughed so hard I scared the dog. I don't know, it just tickled me that quote. Just the thought of him up there, yelling and all like, COVID, COVID, COVID, and you dumb bastard. I don't know. It just tickled me. And, yeah I don't feel the pain anymore Dan. It's like when I worked, Dan, I worked at a prototype, early on I was a barista before baristas were a thing, Dan.

 

Dan:

Oh, look at you.

 

Maureen:

I was an OG. And I poured so much, because then we still have pots as opposed to dispensers. So if you want a normal coffee it came out of the pot. I poured so much hot coffee on my hands. Because you're working fast. It gets spilled on your hands all the time. Then after a while, I simply didn't feel hot coffee before being poured on my, I felt it a little bit, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I would just kind of shake it off. Sometimes I didn't even run water over it. I was like, yeah, whatever. And that's how I feel. I don't feel the hot coffee on my hands anymore. I'm like, I like the pain.

 

Dan:

That is very much what it feels like. And I'm glad that you liked the pain, Maureen.

 

Maureen:

I don't know if I like it. Maybe I do.

 

Dan:

Because I don't want to talk about Trump's rallies or the election. Maureen Johnson today I want to talk about the Rudy situation.

 

Maureen:

Oh boy.

 

Dan:

Last week we recorded on Tuesday. The episode came out on Wednesday, also out on Wednesday, the New York post ran a story that they called a smoking gun based around emails from Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son and the Ukrainian businessman. Now I had quite a bit of crash course in Ukrainian businessmen and Hunter Biden just a year ago when the impeachment was happening and I was writing about it every day. So the fact that this has come back again is a real sort of whiplash blast from the past type situation. But more so this is clearly an attempt at an October surprise. Some sort of drop that will change the course of events in this election, similar to almost exactly the same time period. The emails that were dropped in the 2016 campaign for that had been hacked by Russian intelligence and given to WikiLeaks.

 

Dan:

But this time, the article claims that's not where these emails came from Maureen Johnson. Instead, they say the email came off a computer that belonged to Hunter Biden, which was dropped off with three water damaged computers at a repair shop in Delaware in April of 2019, but that he never picked them up. According to the story, the owner noticed a Beau Biden foundation sticker on one of the laptops and started digging through the contents of the laptop, which is definitely what you should do if you are owner of a computer repair shop. At some point he alerted the FBI, who seized the computer in December, but before alerting the FBI, the owner made a copy of the hard drive and gave it to Rudy Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Castello.

 

Maureen:

You might need an explanation here, Dan. I want to chime in as our resonant Delaware expert as you know I went to university of Delaware.

 

Dan:

Yes please. Yeah.

 

Maureen:

And it's a little known state. There's a couple of things people don't know about Delaware. There's common things like you should base your corporation out there because of the corporate tax rate. There's no tax on shopping. And also if you find a shady computer hard drive, you have to send it to Rudy Giuliani. It's the last one people don't know about. And I feel like if more people knew when they came into Delaware, that that was what they needed to do, we'd have fewer problems.

 

Dan:

Yes. But in this case, that's exactly what happened. Now there is a bit of an interesting question mark that I have not seen full documentation of, of whether Hunter Biden was even in Delaware in April of 2019. I have seen some reports that he was actually in California at the time. So that's a side question mark. Anyway, he gives this hard drive clone to Rudy Giuliani's lawyer who then apparently told Steve Bannon about it, who then told the New York Post about it, who got the hard drive from Rudy last Sunday and published on Wednesday.

 

Maureen:

That's pretty quick.

 

Dan:

That's a pretty quick time to turn around the contents to verify the contents of a strangely procured hard drive. The lead author of the piece, a woman named Emma-Jo Morris had never had a published article in the New York Post before that piece ran. Now she has six. They are all based around the contents of the hard drive. This is despite the fact that she apparently works at the New York Post as a politics editor since April. The New York Post as far as I know, and I know some people that have worked there, they are not exactly like, "Hey, it's cool. If you don't want to publish anything for a long time." So that's a bit of a mystery. They like their writers to crank it out. Not in a tube in way.

 

Maureen:

Oh, damn it.

 

Dan:

I'm sorry. You are the one, I blame you.

 

Maureen:

Do not turn this on me.

 

Dan:

Before joining the New York Post, Emma-Jo Morris was a segment producer for Sean Hannity for years.

 

Maureen:

You surprised [inaudible 00:29:34].

 

Dan:

Yeah. So that all seemed pretty comically bad on the day it ran, it was sketchy enough that Twitter and Facebook blocked the article from being shared, which they've never done before as far as I know. But it has gotten even more farcical since the New York Times reported that the main article was actually written by a different post reporter who refused to put his name on it because it was so shitty.

 

Maureen:

Imagine writing for the post and then writing an article that was so bad that you couldn't even imagine what that feels like.

 

Dan:

Yeah. The article itself actually had two by-lines. The second reporter had told friends that she did not know her name was on it until it was published. So that seems great. It turns out that the New York Post was actually the last place Rudy tried shopping the hard drive to, he was turned down by a bunch of other outlets including Fox News who passed it over due to "credibility concerns."

 

Maureen:

I'm rubbing my, you can't hear me rubbing my eyes which is probably good.

 

Dan:

Yeah. So Rudy admitted to the New York Times that he tried to place it elsewhere but "Either nobody else would take it or if they took it, they'd spend all the time they could try to contradict it before they put it out." So basically he chose the place that would just run it as is. Now we'll get to a little more Rudy in a second, but I want to talk about the owner of this computer repair shop, who for some reason sat down for a two hour interview with CBS News.

 

Maureen:

I missed this entirely Dan. I've been working pretty hard the last couple of days. So I missed all of it.

 

Dan:

You're in for a treat. So his name is John Paul MacIsaac, several times during the interview he mentioned how he felt Mr. Trump was treated unfairly during his impeachment trial and suggested that if the alleged documents are true the "Sham impeachment was a reason to release them." He also mentioned his girlfriend left him after he voted for Trump in 2016. So of all the computer repair shops, in all of the possible places in Delaware to take your three waterlogged computers for repair, you are Hunter Biden and you walk into the one with the guy who's still sore because his girlfriend left him because he voted for Trump.

 

Maureen:

Quick question. Do we know what city this happened in, in Delaware?

 

Dan:

Wilmington.

 

Maureen:

Okay.

 

Dan:

So the funny thing is he then admitted that he can't actually confirm that the person that dropped the computer off was Hunter Biden because Maureen Johnson, the owner of a computer repair shop is legally blind.

 

Maureen:

I got to go down. I'm going to see you later. I'll got to go. Hey Dan, good luck with the show. Good luck.

 

Dan:

Okay phew. Now it's just us. Finally. Took four years.

 

Maureen:

Okay. Dan, I just want to come back here for just one sec.

 

Dan:

What? Oh, huh. Oh, okay.

 

Maureen:

Dan.

 

Dan:

Yeah.

 

Maureen:

The guy who runs the computer repair place, is blind?

 

Dan:

Legally, according to him. Maybe it's just a legal face blindness. You would say, well, certainly if you're running a computer repair shop, I bet you've got security cameras and you could maybe use those to find out if in fact Hunter Biden came in with three waterlogged computers, one of which had a Beau Biden sticker on it.

 

Maureen:

I cannot believe I missed all of this. I have been working very hard last couple of days Dan. So okay then they got it [inaudible 00:33:36].

 

Dan:

It turns out that it's not on video because he wipes his security cameras on a regular basis.

 

Maureen:

Dan?

 

Dan:

Yeah. According to CBS "MacIsaac contradicted himself repeatedly about why he wanted to share the alleged contents of the hard drive. He first asserted, he went to the FBI for protection fearing possible retribution from the Biden family." What does retribution from the Biden family look like? It feels like if you're really in trouble with the Bidens, they might only invite you over for afternoon snacks instead of dinner.

 

Maureen:

I feel like it's a noogie but.

 

Dan:

Maybe that feels rough. Maybe it's a slightly rough game a touch football in their front yard. Okay. When the FBI supposedly did not act, he said, he thought the FBI could be out to get him, which is why he turned to Giuliani.

 

Maureen:

It's your natural second place to go.

 

Dan:

It's your go-to definitely. There is not any documentation whatsoever about Rudy Giuliani's relationship with the FBI. So I would think that that's who you would go to for sure. He refused to discuss much. He talked to these people for two hours, mind you. He refused to discuss much about Giuliani saying that, "I was told not to talk to anybody else." Which seems cool to have invited TV cameras in.

 

Maureen:

Okay. All right. So can I just, just so I understand completely.

 

Dan:

Please. Yeah. I would love clarity on this. Yes.

 

Maureen:

Three laptops?

 

Dan:

Apparently, waterlogged.

 

Maureen:

Water damaged.

 

Dan:

Yes.

 

Maureen:

Okay. So flood, swimming pool, three laptops in the bathtub situation. Laptop pool party.

 

Dan:

Who hasn't Maureen Johnson, waterlogged one laptop and in the process of trying to save that one, lost two more.

 

Maureen:

Well you go, you reached back out of the pool to get your, you're playing, okay. Here's what happens. You're playing Marco Polo online but you play that in a pool. Okay? Hear me out. You've got your eyes closed, Marco Polo, and then you dive forward to try to grab somebody, but you're holding your computer because you're playing it online. It's like among us in a pool a little bit. Who has three laptops? Is another question, I'm sure some people do, but.

 

Dan:

Definitely people do. I have a feeling that if you are a Michael Cohen who was caught with what? 16 phones, a Rudy Giuliani who has been documented as kind of juggling multiple cell phones in his hands at one time. Or one of those types of people the idea of having multiple redundant electronics devices is maybe a little bit more mainstream in your brain than it is in reality. But apparently whomever came with these soaking wet dripping computers had three of them though, as far as I can understand we are exclusively talking about the contents of one. And that one was not picked up. I don't know if I mentioned that part. Somebody, Hunter Biden, but if you're blind who knows, came in and drop these off complete with a Beau Biden sticker on them, but never came to pick them up again. Somewhere along the way this guy began to fear for his life because he was afraid the Biden family was going to come and I don't know, bring him an ice cream or something.

 

Maureen:

Wait, wait, wait, hold on. I just want to-

 

Dan:

Maybe he's lactose intolerant.

 

Maureen:

I need to comb through this one more time. So somebody, a person, brings in three waterlogged laptops?

 

Dan:

Yes.

 

Maureen:

I just want to understand the timeline. And this was back in?

 

Dan:

April of 2019.

 

Maureen:

Last year, someone dropped off three waterlogged laptops to a computer repair store in Wilmington?

 

Dan:

Yeah.

 

Maureen:

And never came back?

 

Dan:

Yeah. At least for one that I'm a little bit, the one part of the story that feels foggy to me, everything else feels very crystal clear. Is there were three laptops and then there was one and I don't know if the other two were picked up or if the other two were not. The other two seemed to disappear.

 

Maureen:

Okay. So when did he first-

 

Dan:

In the various retellings.

 

Maureen:

When does he first become concerned? Does he just immediately see the sticker?

 

Dan:

It does not appear that way. It seems that we are talking about, December is when he alerted the FBI or is when the FBI seized the computer. That part is also a little bit unclear. We're not dealing with the most consistent information stream here Maureen. And this is maybe where we need to just push past this for a minute. Because I think we might be confusing the trees for the forest. Because we are working under the assumption that any of this actually happened right now.

 

Dan:

The Washington Post this week reported that late last year, so we are talking about the same timeframe here. Trump was warned by high ranking intelligence officials that, "Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine." This is happening during the impeachment trial, which centered around Trump and Rudy trying to get Ukraine to talk shit about Joe Biden. Where Rudy is heading to the Ukraine with various goons, one of whom was supposed to have a trial happening right now. But because of COVID, it got kicked to after the election. When told by intelligence that Rudy may be compromised, Trump "Shrugged, his shoulders and responded that's Rudy." To be fair, Maureen, that definitely Rudy. He's not wrong.

 

Maureen:

That is Rudy.

 

Dan:

That is Rudy. The US treasury department has identified Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andrii Derkach as an, "Active Russian agent." So Rudy, as he tends to do this past week made the rounds. I will qualify that Rudy has not responded to any of my texts. So he goes to ground occasionally and he'll come back some point we can not be separated for that long, but he did speak to The Daily Beast for an hour. People have a lot of time on their hands.

 

Maureen:

Really?

 

Dan:

Yeah. And they asked him about Andrii Derkach being an active Russian agent because he is someone that is long been cited as a source for Rudy. Rudy responded, "The chance that Derkach is a Russian spy is no better than 50, 50."

 

Maureen:

Cool. Okay. Well, it's fine.

 

Dan:

I think that no better than 50, 50 does not sound as good in reality as maybe it sounded in his head.

 

Maureen:

How about this? You have a new neighbor move in across the street Dan, there's a 50, 50 chance that he's a serial killer. Are you worried?

 

Dan:

I am definitely worried. If I have a new neighbor that moves in and there's a 50, 50 chance that he's a Russian spy, I'm worried.

 

Maureen:

He's fine. He's got a brand new boat and he keeps buying coolers and he likes to go fishing in the middle of the night. People visit him, but they don't come out.

 

Dan:

What percentage of Russian spy do you think would begin to make Giuliani worry? 50, 50? Is it 60, 40? 70, 30?

 

Maureen:

Rudy [inaudible 00:42:19] the rest of us. No. He is not [inaudible 00:42:21].

 

Dan:

Maybe 80 20. Is he like. I don't know, the guy keeps slipping into Russian. But maybe he just really likes botched. After explaining that Derkach is only a 50, 50 chance that he's a Russian spy. Guiliani went on a rant to The Daily Beast about how George Soros was trying to undermine his work because he wants to create a socialist country. When the daily beast asked Giuliani, if he would still be shopping this material around, if it hadn't come from the computer repair shop but instead from, for instance, the Russian hack of the Ukrainian company Burisma, that Hunter Biden worked for, which did happen last year at about the same time, he responded wouldn't matter. What's the difference.

 

Maureen:

Right. Okay.

 

Dan:

Rudy went on to say that the data that he's got includes "A number of photographs that show very explicit sexual activity and other very personal things and also display criminal conduct." When asked what that criminal conduct might be, Rudy said that. "Smoking crack is a crime."

 

Maureen:

Well, he's right.

 

Dan:

He also told The Daily Beast that he sleeps with the hard drive under his pillow.

 

Maureen:

Come on now, Dan, you stop it. You shut your mouth right now.

 

Dan:

That's what he said.

 

Maureen:

You stop Dan.

 

Dan:

I am exclusively reporting reported incidents.

 

Maureen:

Dan? One of the dumbest people I ever met, and this is somebody connected to somebody I knew a long time ago was really into guns, and she's like yeah, whenever I go camping with my daughters, I sleep with a loaded gun under my pillow with a safety off in case I need to do anything during the night. And that's what that feels like to me Dan, except much, much weirder.

 

Dan:

Yeah.

 

Maureen:

So he sleeps with them? Under his pillow? Where do you think they are Dan? Under the blanket, like is he spooning them? I have so many questions about...

 

Dan:

Maybe he's got one of those teddy bears that's also a safe and he just cuddles it.

 

Maureen:

Dan. All right.

 

Dan:

So despite the fact that he says that he's got these sexually explicit photos, which we are a few weeks out still, so maybe we'll be lucky enough to see those. All we've seen from the post, they did include a few selfies of Hunter to sort of prove that they had more than these sort of weird emails that they were publishing. But nothing of the sexual nature of the Giuliani is hinting at. And in fact, the main follow-up story that we have gotten from the post about this stuff is texts that Joe sent to Hunter when he was in rehab that included such damning correspondence as Joe Biden writing, "Good morning, at 6:57 in the morning. Good morning. My beautiful son. I miss you and love you, dad."

 

Maureen:

Dan?

 

Dan:

It is such a tell for all of these people that they think that that's an indictment of Joe Biden.

 

Maureen:

Don Junior read that and cried for an hour.

 

Dan:

Oh, easily. Easily an hour. He may still be crying.

 

Maureen:

Yeah. He's printed that out.

 

Dan:

You know what he did, he sent it to himself with a burner account and he pretends that it's from his dad. I miss you too dad.

 

Maureen:

Oh my God. Those doomed, doomed people.

 

Dan:

The whole correspondence is basically Hunter being like I'm in rehab. This was all taking place during the impeachment trial, which again, let's remember was about Donald Trump trying to get Ukrainian dirt on Joe Biden via his son Hunter. Hunter is in rehab, is writing Joe Biden basically being like, I'm so sorry that I am your fuck up son, I fucked up your political chances, you're going to go through this entire campaign with a target on your back and I put it there and I am the worst. And Joe Biden's response is just to repeatedly be like, you are wonderful, everyone loves you. You are my beautiful son.

 

Maureen:

I mean, god damn it.

 

Dan:

He is a dad that signs his texts, dad.

 

Maureen:

Yeah.

 

Dan:

Anyway, at the end of the day this October surprise seems to be all they have is trying to indict Joe Biden through his son, Hunter, which seems like such a fundamentally terrible miscalculation, it is amazing. It makes Biden seem more sympathetic. He is a father with a troubled son, who he still loves, who is getting weird and shady attacks about what the son may have been doing, nothing to do with him really. The more you unpeel it, the more sort of weird and shady all of the people associated with it get except for Joe Biden.

 

Maureen:

Dan, did you ever see the movie young Frankenstein?

 

Dan:

A long time ago.

 

Maureen:

Well, so Dr. Frankenstein makes the monster and he wants to introduce it to the town. So he rents out a theater and he and the monster perform a tap dancing routine to put on the ritz. But then someone lights a cigarette or something and the monster goes crazy and attacks. And I feel like this is them trying to perform, putting on the ritz with Rudy Giuliani.

 

Dan:

Yeah. I mean, it very much feels like they are trying to recapture what they think of as the magic of 2016. We have emails procured via nefarious questionable means, we have Trump barnstorming around the country holding rallies every three seconds. He's even brought Corey Lewandowski back, he's brought the band back together. They think that they can recapture that lightning in a bottle, except that the whole fundamentals have changed. He has had four years as president, not one year as a wish fulfillment device for fucking shitty people. It doesn't seem to be sticking in the way that it did in 16. That is for sure.

 

Maureen:

It just that we don't have the old razzle dazzle do it.

 

Dan:

There's none of that old razzle dazzle.

 

Maureen:

Dan, I'm glad I didn't know the full story, because that was magical.

 

Dan:

Welcome.

 

Maureen:

That [inaudible 00:50:25] feel, ta-da feel to it.

 

Dan:

Oh, these are not bright guys Maureen.

 

Maureen:

Things just got out of hand.

 

Dan:

Yeah. Anyway. Says Who is made possible by you.

 

Maureen:

Wait, didn't you want my claw update?

 

Dan:

I do want your clock date. I've been waiting all day. You might want to fill people in because I think the claw only made an appearance on the town watch episode this week. So we made them to do some claw backfill here.

 

Maureen:

Four weeks ago I injured my hand. I cut it with a pair of haircutting scissors and basically sliced off my knuckle. There was a little piece of skin, it was still sort of hanging on and they managed to sort of glue it back together at urgent care. But because it was on the bend of the knuckle. So most of it was able to be glued but it had to be immobilized at first. Because anytime you moved it, it would kind of flap up and it mostly healed down like the first two thirds of it healed down. But then that last third of it didn't stick and kind of started jutting out like a little cliff or something, a little shelf of rock when you imagine.

 

Maureen:

And then it healed for underneath and sort of built a little skin bridge. So I had basically this kind of cloth thing sticking out of my knuckle and I'm like, what am I going to do with this? Because it's not great. You're not supposed to have that. So a review from the doctor or nurse was like, they may have to go and remove that. But the updates, the other day it got caught on something and blood came out of it. My hand was bleeding, but I was like, oh, it's kind of a good sign. I'm like, because this thing isn't ready to go. We were hoping it would just go away and it tore. And so I just cleaned my finger and wrapped it up. And then basically by the next day it was just hanging on by a thread and then I just kind of rubbed at it and it came off. And now, I do not have to have a claw anymore.

 

Dan:

You have two claws.

 

Maureen:

No, Dan, I just have a very lumpy finger. So my finger is now healed, but it's obviously going to have a big lumpy scar where the, just as a big, it looks like a blister almost, but that's just the healed. I'm just going to have a scar Dan. I'm going to have scars of this time. I've got my Donald Trump giving a speech, me making dole lip scar on the one finger. Now I've got two little pandemic scars, one on my foot, one on my hand, this is the bigger of the two. Little memories Dan, [inaudible 00:53:08] is a good time.

 

Dan:

(singing)

 

Maureen:

So I don't have a claw anymore.

 

Dan:

Kind of sad about that.

 

Maureen:

It's fine Dan.

 

Dan:

I thought you were transforming.

 

Maureen:

I was evolving?

 

Dan:

You were entering your final form. Can I just read you one thing? Because I think it's important. Overlooked news story. It's an Incident that happened here, Chicago's O'Hare airport on the 24th of September. So a month ago. "I had just left work at the USPS sorting facility at O'Hare airport, about 11:00 PM on Thursday, the 24th of September. And I was walking out to my car when I saw something standing at the far end of the parking lot, where I usually park. At first, I thought it was a very tall person with a long coat. As I got closer to my car, I unlocked my car, which caused my headlights to come on. My headlights hit the person standing about 20 to 25 feet from my car, causing it to turn and look right at me.

 

Dan:

I saw that this was not some person, but some red-eyed creature. And what appeared to be a coat was actually wings which had spread out as it turned to look at me. At first, I thought it was some sort of very, very large bird, but I'd never seen any birds that stood almost seven feet tall. I'm five foot four. And this thing look taller than me by at least two feet. This thing then stared making some kind of chirping sound, almost a half chirp and half click like someone was clicking their tongue, but much, much faster. But then made some type of screeching sound and took off running toward me. It got within 10 feet of me and took off into the air and flew above me." The moth man has been cited in Chicago, Maureen.

 

Maureen:

Yes.

 

Dan:

This is according to a report from the singular fortean society. That was a report that was taken by Manuel Navarette of the UFO clearing house. So it's on now. You could have joined the crypto zoological world with your claw, but instead you just let it fall off. I'm honestly disappointed.

 

Maureen:

Well, Dan, did you just hear a lot of noise by the way?

 

Dan:

I just heard ah.

 

Maureen:

Yeah, that was, for some reason, something that was sitting in the background of a tab I had on my computer side. It's autoplay and then I jumped out of my chair in fear.

 

Dan:

Hope we're not getting a tube in situation over here.

 

Maureen:

Says Who has been brought to you by you. For your support of our, goddammit Dan, @patrion.com/sayswho [inaudible 00:56:01]. Including this Sunday where we, Dan, we are watching this debate. Aren't we? Yes we are.

 

Dan:

Oh yeah, we are. You'll get it. If you're a patreon backer at five bucks a month or above, we will be talking about this week's debate this Sunday, unless maybe the president will get COVID every time right after a debate. President gets COVID will go live. Our theme music is performed by Ted Leo. Our logo was designed by Darth. You can contact us @sayswho podcast on Twitter. You can email @hey, that is H-E-Y, @sayswhopodcast.com you can join the discussion on Facebook at /groups/sayswhovians, our Facebook group is moderated by Janice Dillard. And I know that I say this a lot, but that group is a remarkable collection of people that are supporting each other through very difficult times right now. So hats off to all of them. In addition to that, if you are more of a discord person, there is a sayswhovian run, discord@tinyurl.com/sayswhodiscord, where they have been playing a lot of among us. So that's fun.

 

Maureen:

It's so good.

 

Dan:

That's so good. AOC called it out yesterday. She wants people to play among us with her.

 

Maureen:

It's so good.

 

Dan:

Yeah. I bet it is. I don't get invited to play. Spread the word, subscribe, and please leave stars and reviews on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you listen. They are great to see and thank you for writing them. And please write lots more. Join us next Wednesday, October 28th for our next episode, which Maureen Johnson is our last episode before the day that we call election day.

 

Maureen:

When we record next Tuesday, it will be one week from the election. The next time you hear this, besides from this next time you hear it, we will be within a week. It'll be within six days of election day.

 

Dan:

And we will be in the shoot.

 

Maureen:

We are, I mean, we're really there Dan.

 

Dan:

It feels really different. I will say. It doesn't feel like there's a presidential election in two weeks, but hey, maybe I forgot what that felt like because I forgotten what anything feels like anymore.

 

Maureen:

Dan, when you think about going back out again and resuming activities, do you think you're going to be able to do it normally? It's going to be really, I forgotten how to do all of that.

 

Dan:

A friend of mine had surgery last week and her mom came out to help her with the recovery. And her big takeaway was I realized that I don't know how to deal with other people. That was her main. I realized that I forgotten how to do that. So yeah, I really don't know how that's going to work. But I think it's going to be a long time. So don't need to worry about that quite yet. Let's get through the election and then a bunch of other months and maybe then we'll possibly be posed with that problem in many months after. We'll see. See you tomorrow. From my basement in Chicago, I am Dan Sinker.

 

Maureen:

We're going to savor every second that we're at Disney world Dan.

 

Dan:

When is that? 2022?

 

Maureen:

I don't know.

 

Dan:

We're going to be old. We're going to be like 85. Riding those little mobility scooters around throughout Disney. [inaudible 01:00:16]. They will have closed three of the four parks, it's just going to be like four staffers, be one ride left. I'm going to just kind of moodily slings dole whip at you as you roll by. This is worth every minute.

 

Maureen:

Dan, I'm-

 

Dan:

We've waited 40 years.

 

Maureen:

We're going to have printed out schedules of all the fun we're going to have so we can maximize every day.

 

Dan:

There were protests at Disneyland yesterday. We didn't even talk about that.

 

Maureen:

I saw those.

 

Dan:

Yeah.

 

Maureen:

People standing outside the gates wearing Mickey ears holding up signs, saying open the gates.

 

Dan:

Yeah. Citing frozen for the guards to open up the gates, which is literally the event in the movie frozen that sets off all of the problems that the movie frozen then has to spend two hours sorting out. So I feel like they should watch their own fucking movies a little closer, goddammit. From my basement in Chicago.

 

Maureen:

And when you hear this tomorrow, everybody, it'll be under two weeks. It'll be 13 days as you listened to this or [inaudible 01:01:39].

 

Dan:

And today and a day from the debate. That's absolutely definitely going to happen.

 

Maureen:

What city is it? I just want to know for some reason.

 

Dan:

Kennebunk port, Maine.

 

Maureen:

Really?

 

Dan:

No. Santa Fe New Mexico.

 

Maureen:

I was going to say it didn't sound right. Is that really it?

 

Dan:

Hays, Kansas.

 

Maureen:

Wait, now come on. Stop.

 

Dan:

Topeka, Kansas.

 

Maureen:

Third debate city. [inaudible 01:02:08].

 

Dan:

Athens, Georgia.

 

Maureen:

Let's see here.

 

Dan:

Missoula, Montana.

 

Maureen:

Stop it.

 

Dan:

Sacramento, California.

 

Maureen:

It is Belmont university in Nashville.

 

Dan:

Nashville, Tennessee. See I got it.

 

Maureen:

Well see you tomorrow. It's going to be so many, three a week.

 

Dan:

This has been Says Who. Really Maureen. How do you end up with three soaking wet laptops.

 

Maureen:

Ask Toobin.

 

Dan:

Oh, [inaudible 01:02:58]. Oh, gross. Oh, that is so gross. That is so much grosser that I was thinking.

 

Maureen:

Bye Dan.

 

Dan:

Oh, gross.

 

Maureen:

Bye. Bye.