The Scathing Atheist - 508: Waved Off Edition

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

In this week’s episode, we’ll wave goodbye to the red wave that wasn’t , we'll abort so many babies in Michigan, California, and Vermont, and Michael Marshall will skate the edge of UK libel laws once again. --- To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheist To buy our book, click there: https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic/dp/B08L2HSVS8/ To check out our sister show, The Skepticrat, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/the-skepticrat To check out our sister show’s hot friend, God Awful Movies, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/god-awful-movies To check out our half-sister show, Citation Needed, click here: http://citationpod.com/ To check out our sister show’s sister show, D and D minus, click here: https://danddminus.libsyn.com/ To hear more from our intrepid audio engineer Morgan Clarke, click here: https://www.morganclarkemusic.com/ --- Vulgarity for Charity Info: To participate in Vulgarity For Charity 2022: Donate $50+ to ModestNeeds.org Screenshot a copy of the receipt as proof. Email it to [e-mail] Tell us who or what you want roasted - be sure to give us some details to work with and a photo if they aren't a famous or well-known person. Give us your name as you want it to be read out, i.e. Greg J. or "Happy Bear" You may request a specific host. 100 random roasts and the top 100 dollar value roasts will be read on-air on Scathing Atheist and Cognitive Dissonance in the coming weeks. The earlier you send in the roast the better chance it has of being selected. Deadline MIDNIGHT ET on November 24, 2022. --- Headlines: Red wave fails to materialize in midterms: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/briefing/midterm-election-results-2022.html https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1134831808/pennsylvania-governor-results-midterms-shapiro-mastriano https://coloradosun.com/2022/11/08/lauren-boebert-adam-frisch-3rd-district/ Kroger to pay $180K for firing Christians who wouldn’t wear heart symbol: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/kroger-to-pay-180k-for-firing-christians-heart-symbol/ Most faith groups agree US has gone astray but they don’t agree on the way forward: https://religionnews.com/2022/10/27/most-americans-including-majorities-of-religious-groups-say-us-headed-wrong-way/ Federal court says beauty pageant has First Amendment right to exclude trans people: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/federal-court-says-beauty-pageant-first-amendment-right-exclude-trans-people/ Judge blocks SPU suit that would have halted investigation into discriminatory hiring: https://religionnews.com/2022/10/27/judge-dismisses-spu-lawsuit-aimed-at-halting-probe-into-the-universitys-hiring-practices/ Cringeworthy ad claims God created Ron DeSantis because He needed a ‘fighter’: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/cringeworthy-ad-god-created-ron-desantis-because-he-needed-a-fighter/ --- This Week in Misogyny: Abortion referendums all go the right way: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/abortion-rights-ballot-proposals.html

Warning, I'm back, bitches, gonna govern the shit out of Arkansas. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by Stamps.com and by voters getting it right once in a while. Like, seriously, consider how illegal what we do would be in most places and times throughout history and remember that the only thing that stands between us and that is voters getting it right once in a while. And now, The scathing atheist. As an avid TV and movie watcher who's noticed the striking visual similarities between that

orange guy in TV and the orangutan in Planet of the Apes, except for the Pringles tube-sized tiny hands, I assure you that we did in fact evolve from filthy monkey men. Ah, it's Thursday. It's November 10th. And team holding pattern. Yeah. Team holding pattern. So far so good. Team holding pattern. I'm Pattern. Team Holding Pattern. I'm no illusions.

I'm Eli Bosnick. I'm Heath Enright. And from Donald Trump's Bedminster Golf Course, New Jersey, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Waycross, Georgia, this is the Scathing Atheist. On this week's episode, we'll say goodbye to the red wave that wasn't. We're going to kill so many babies in Michigan, California, and Vermont now. Right. And Michael Marshall will skate the edge

of UK libel laws once again. But first, the diatribe. So look, obviously we're going to talk about the midterms. Got a whole headline reserved for that coming up, but I wanted to open things up on one relatively insignificant house race that wasn't really in play. That would be California's second district where Democratic incumbent Jared Huffman sailed the victory against Republican challenger Douglas Bauer by better than 40 points. challenger Douglas Bauer by better than 40 points. So why highlight such a foregone conclusion of a race? Because Huffman accounts for 100% of the non-religious representation in Congress. Again, and even Huffman won't use the A word, but describes himself as a humanist. And now he

freely admits that he doesn't believe in God, though. That is literally the best we have, humanist. Now, he freely admits that he doesn't believe in God, though. That is literally the best we have, and we only have the one of him. Now, it's not quite as bad as that might make it seem. There are several members of the House who give an N.A. when it comes to religion. And while that doesn't exactly stand for non-believer slash atheist, it doesn't exactly not stand for that either, right? There are also people like Jamie Raskin in Maryland and Susan Wilde in pennsylvania who are like well yeah i'm jewish but i'm not like religious about it and for what it's worth all 15 members of the congressional free thought caucus were that were up for re-election either

one or were leading at the time of this recording some of them were in swing districts as well but there's still only one member of congress who's even willing to get within a synonym of atheist. One out of 535. That leaves us as one of the most underrepresented groups in the country. According to the most recent Pew numbers, there are almost 10 million people in this country that describe themselves as atheist, that use the word atheist. 10 million in the country, none in Congress. the word atheist. 10 million in the country, none in Congress. Even worse, nearly 100 million Americans are non-religious and only one member of Congress is, or at least admits to be. We've made a lot of progress over the last decade or two in terms of gaining social acceptance and growing our share of the population, but that hasn't translated to the world of politics at all.

In fact, if you're ever in doubt about what a political deal-breaker atheism is, you need only remind yourself that seven U.S. states still have clauses in their constitution that bar us from holding public office, right? Like, yes, those clauses are unenforceable thanks to a 1961 Supreme Court ruling, but enforceable or not, the fact that there's still a no Irish need applies sign hanging on the building is a constant reminder of how unwelcome we are here. Now, whenever I bring that fact up, of course, I inevitably hear backlash from people who say it's a waste of time to expend any energy whatsoever pushing back against those clauses. They can't actually be used to bar atheists from holding office and removing them would require

a constitutional amendment, which is way harder always than getting just a majority vote so you know why expend so much political capital just to remove a non-binding remnant of historical marginalization but like the fact that it would require political capital at all is an enormous fuck you to non-religious americans isn't it we need 66 of some state Congress to say, yeah, your religious beliefs shouldn't be like continuously insulted by our state's governing document that we can't get that. And if we can't reasonably expect that kind of effort

to just sail towards ratification with all the controversy of a renamed post office, how the fuck can we ever expect sitting members of Congress or congressional hopefuls to admit to their disbelief but if you're still firmly in the legislatively impossible camp i want to draw your attention to a ballot measure that passed in tennessee on tuesday see in addition to clauses barring atheists from holding office a lot of state constitutionals originally had clauses that barred clergy from holding office. Right.

This wasn't because of church state separation concerns, by the way. The justification was inevitably that the Lord's work is so important they can't be burdened by such earthly concerns as state budgets and stuff. Anyway, over the years, all of those clauses got removed despite the legislative impossibility of a constitutional amendment. And nobody had to expend any political capital for it at all. In fact, they gained political capital for having done it. Now, that's all the states except, of course, Tennessee. Now, like the Atheist Man, this one was castrated by the SCOTUS in a different decision, this one in 1978,

and it was, I don't think, ever enforced before that, but there was still a no-clergy clause in their state constitution, so the state legislature set out to fix that. That required passing two bills in consecutive legislative sessions and passing a referendum through popular vote. And that final step occurred on Tuesday when the state overwhelmingly voted to remove that vestigial restriction. But throughout the process, the same state's constitutional restriction against atheists holding office remained untouched it would have taken precisely zero effort to add and the section about atheists to those

various bills and plebiscites but as near as i can tell nobody ever even brought that up you know and as to those who tell me it doesn't matter because none of this shit is enforceable i'd like to remind you just how high a regard the current Supreme Court has for longstanding precedent. Right? Combine that with their silly putty definition of religious freedom and their vague commitment to states' rights and tell me you feel 100% safe that those clauses will remain unenforceable for your lifetime. Look, the naysayers told us for years

that any effort to get in God we trust off our money or out of the Pledge of Allegiance was a wasted effort because it didn't change anything. But now those two facts are being used to sell a fictitious history of America as a Christian nation, not just in our textbooks, but in fucking Supreme Court cases. It's no stretch at all to imagine them trying to justify the ban on atheist lawmakers through some perverse argument about originalism, right? I mean, they'd even be correct about the framers intent in that case. But regardless of how you feel about that, regardless of whether you share my concern or not, you should support every effort to change those things because there's no such thing as asking for too much equality. And until we can at least agree on that,

we cannot hope to make true progress. They're talking about you, Jesus. We interrupt this broadcast and bring you a special news bulletin. Joining me for headlines tonight are the Kevin and Stuart to my Bob, Heath, Ed Wright, and Eli Bosnick fellas. Are you ready to get despicable?

Please, Noah, there's already so many rumors flying around about how we're all fucking. You're not making it easier with these comparisons. Easy to lose an eye if you're not careful. Absolutely. A lot of stuff going on. And before we get into

the depressing part of the show, I want to remind you that Vulgarity for Charity is in full swing. It runs through Thanksgiving Day at midnight, so there's still time to get your donation and roast request in, and right now, every dollar you donate will be doubled because we have a matching donor for the first $100,000. With that match, we've already raised over $120,000, but we know from past experience that we can do so much more. All right, so here's how it works. Just go to modestneeds.org and make a donation of $50 or more to any cause you see or to their general fund.

make a donation of $50 or more to any cause you see or to their general fund. Then send a copy of that receipt along with your roast request to vulgarityforcharity at gmail.com. That's the word for, not the number, all spelled out. And if the person you want roasted is not famous, you should have sent us a picture and some details about that person. We'll choose the 100 highest donors and 100 more at random and roast their targets on air either over here or on cognitive dissonance. And the first set of roasts is next week. So get those donations in quick. Maximize your chances of getting randomly selected. You'll find all the links and details in the show notes. And hey, if you're, I don't know, pissed off this morning, there is literally no better place to put that anger than into a charity drive that

includes both anger and helping people escape poverty right it's a there you go yeah and now back to the headlines in our lead story tonight i want to open up with a quick recap of the midterms enough of the happy stuff partially because we need to take stock of how fucked we are over the next two years but also because these are the only times that I let Heath and Eli rank the races on the air. Now, admittedly, we don't know as much as we'd like to at the time of this record. You might actually know more by the time this episode drops, but all in all, there's more good news to report on than bad news. Granted, that's because we've recalibrated our expectations such that anything left of avowed theocrat

wins on the pretending they can't hear trans people when they talk platform seems like a victory but by that standard we did all right yeah we did i'm certainly not super psyched about the state of american politics but republicans are mad today so actually i am in that sense yep like each unit of their pain is several units of happiness for me. For sure. I'm like Nozick's sadness monster. Yeah.

Team holding pattern. Team holding pattern. Team holding pattern. I was churning out the windows last night. Andrew did pretty good with his predictions. Gotta say, not bad. Now, there are a few important things that we do know. Like, for example, we definitely didn't see a fucking red wave that

all the pollsters were panicking about starting a week and a half before the election in an election that looked tailor-made for big republican pickups going in they may not have taken control of either side of the capitol building as far as we know right now and again by our new and terrifying standard that's a pretty substantial victory it It means that Americans can be roused to vote in their own self-interest when presented by a severe enough threat of imminent theocracy, but in any decent world where we still have any hopes of

long-term survival as a country, I sure the fuck wouldn't have to gear up to vote for Raphael Warnock for another fucking fourth time in 25 months. Okay, Herschel Walker proudly compared himself to Ricky Bobby last night while he was giving a talk.

Also, just above nothing, I live with you and Lucinda again for December. Sure do. That's on record. Yeah, my house hammock. Me three and a four and my son five. He's 18 now. 18 years old.

He sure is. Yeah. So now while we're on the subject, there are a couple of specific races that I want to highlight. Among the biggest sighs of relief to escape my lungs on Tuesday night was the realization that Doug Mastriano, perhaps the scariest person on any statewide ballot in the nation, lost his bid to become Pennsylvania's next governor. Mastriano gained prominence as a vocal participant in Trump's big lie. He was actually at the January 6th rally. He cozied up to more than one SPLC-listed hate group during his campaign

and made some seriously anti-Semitic remarks about his Jewish opponent, Josh Shapiro. But ultimately, Shapiro left Mastriano high and dry, as Shapiros are wont to do, raking in a half billion more votes than the avowed bigot who all but promised to use state machinery to rig the 2024 election in republicans favor so that was nice yeah i did enjoy the fact that trump's hand-selected election denier candidates were a big loser for republicans as a group this year yes yeah okay it's a weird chant but like all right say it with me america just barely differentiated between evil and insane evil. Most of the time, this time.

Most places in everywhere but Ohio, more or less. You know, it's something. And hey, in a midterm, right? Historically, the only thing Americans choose at midterms is not the thing they had previously chosen. And Republicans are so evil, they're breaking the streak, people. Yeah, right. But Mastriano isn't the only loss that we had to celebrate last night.

That round of drinks came from Colorado's third district. Yes, it did. Where murder-themed restaurateur and second dumbest congressperson, Lauren Boebert, looks to have been ousted by Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch.

Oh, low bulbs, you lost. Yeah, well, so as of this recording, I don't think anybody's actually called the race, but things aren't looking good for her. And this is a race where, as friend of the show Andrew Torres pointed out on Twitter, 538 gave Boebert a 97% chance of

victory. Huh. But apparently I'm absolutely certain that we're only months away from the biblical fucking rapture doesn't have quite the voter appeal that nate silver assumed also i feel like she killed that dog right like i know you know now that it's over i feel like she killed the dog also does this mean we get to stop listening to nate silver now right or do he and i need to officially open n Nate and Eli's house of election predictions slash stock picks before people will stop taking it seriously?

Yeah, no, look, I think we need to seriously re-examine the whole concept of polling, to be honest. But yeah, all in all, it was about as good a night as you could have reasonably hoped for for Democrats. That being said, the fact that just barely not fascist is the best we could reasonably hope for is a strong argument as to why we need more reason. Just barely not fascist. That's pithier. So one way or the other, still plenty of job security for the three of us. And in heart of the deal news. Fantastic. Kroger Supermarkets agreed to pay $180,000 as part of a settlement after two employees were the victims of

anti-Christian persecution. Here's what happened. The godless management team at a Kroger store in Conway, Arkansas was forcing them to wear a uniform with a very small heart-shaped logo on the corner of their apron, much like the

Nazis made the Jewish people wear. Those two employees refused, and eventually they were fired from their jobs for dress code violations, much like the Nazis did to the Jewish people at those supermarkets. But justice was finally served after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission helped those two ex-employees file a lawsuit to protect their sincerely held not-liking-heart stuff. Jesus fucking Christ, Christians. You're making me defend flair now?

Oh, man. I wish Christians could spend just one day in my head or behind the beeps, if you will. I think it would really revamp their definition of persecution. Give them a sunnier outlook of how things are going. Yeah. So according to their lawsuit, Trudy Rickert and Brenda Lawson were being forced by Kroger

to support LGBTQ rights. They were not. That's not what happened. But their argument explained that the very small heart on the kroger uniform is mostly the color blue but also has red and orange and that's a subset of the rainbow so those aren't colors yeah plus hearts are gay or something we don't know this is a lawsuit this is a weird sentence for the lawsuit. Just for the record, the Kroger heart logo

on their apron has absolutely nothing to do with sexuality or gender identity. At all. At all. It was just a symbol for their customer

service campaign. And that very clear fact that I just gave you was agreed upon by all the parties in this lawsuit negotiation. But, wow, the new version

of American law says we have to respect your sincerely held objectively wrongness right so so not only are they wrong but if they were right their argument would be my employer is making me not publicly hate a minority group right so it's illegal to seem like you're doing that as an employer but not be right which again they're not doing whether or not you're doing it yeah i think the starbucks barista apron is not a kkk hood so you legally can't make me wear one i get to vote that is no less ridiculous than the argument they're making what what Eli just said. So

yeah, the one argument in the lawsuit that did have any merit whatsoever was the part where plaintiffs point out that other employees, they just covered up the heart with a name tag without asking for a religious exemption. And those people were not fired. And I guess that's why Kroger decided to settle. They wrote a check for the 180 grand and agreed to allow reasonable religious accommodations to their dress code. So now all Kroger has to do is provide an alternate uniform that doesn't reflect any wavelengths of visible light to human eyes. But also have it not be black because that would be critical race theory, which, you know, you can sincerely believe against. Like I said, just a reasonable accommodation. Just find

whatever that color is. Not color. Right. That's the thing. Reasonable religious accommodation is an oxymoron. Exactly. You can't. You can't reasonably accommodate someone's invisible friend. Nope. We have left the realm of reason all to fucking gather.

Yes. Everyone always acts like there's some middle ground we're going to find between the fucking boobas that tell you what hat to wear in the morning. And reality. Nope. Nope. We're not doing reality in courts anymore. So, again, Kroger was not forcing employees to do anything related to politics or religion. But they should be. I mean, that would related to politics or religion, but they should be.

I mean, that would be great in my head. Every company should be forcing employees to support LGBTQ rights. And every company that doesn't have don't be a bigot as a sincerely held belief of their company needs to be boycotted until they die. And at the same time, every not evil company needs to become a fucking church so they have rights just like christian people and uh come with a vector towards ova if this is the game that's how we all need to play it until we can change these absurd rules yeah that's what's being forced here we're all churches now we i'm a church i'm a church that lives in georgia damn it yeah that's right and in no duh news the 2022 american values survey by the public religion research institute was published

last week and if i may say it was kind of rudely the day after our show came out so we didn't get to talk about it and while there are lots of interesting takeaways to be had from the study here at the point and laugh and terror department of the Scathing Atheist, we're going to talk about the fact that an insanely high amount of Christians think that things have changed for the worse since the 1950s. Yeah. Listen, if you want things to be more like the 1950s, and you're not very specifically talking about tax rates on the highest earnings you're talking about a bigot thing for fucking sure i mean okay in fairness we're all those christian people those evangelical white christians talking about fixing the tax

system in a very progressive way is that what they meant now now heath they could have been talking about how awesome polio was. Sure. That would be better than what they were actually saying. Yeah. So just like quick reminder for those of you who might not have been alive during the 50s or who missed out about learning about it in history class because it's critical race theory or whatever. The 1950s sucked in the United States.

OK, schools were segregated as were swimming pools, buses, and fucking water fountains. It was illegal to be gay both nationally and there were enforced sodomy laws in a bunch of states.

Polio, as Noah mentioned, was rampant shutting down towns for weeks at a time. Oh, and did I mention we were ramping up

the Cold War, the closest we've ever been in world history to nuclear annihilation yes right also women couldn't get a credit card in their name without getting their account man signed for safety for another two decades 1974 is when we did that yeah look in 1950 the fourth leading cause of death was just being an infant. Being a baby.

It was though. Yeah. So despite those fun facts, Christians apparently really miss the polio and the bigotry. So here's the exact statement they were agreeing with. Because I don't want anyone to think I'm exaggerating. Here's the statement they were given. Quote, since the 1950s, American culture and way of life has mostly changed for the

worse. End quote. And 48% of black Protestants agreed with that statement. Jesus. Almost half of black Protestants were like, no, it was actually pretty awesome having our own section of the bus. I'm going to go ahead and

put it. We in the back that's where all the cool kids sit anyway yeah it is though and of course it'll be no surprise to regular listeners that a whopping 71 percent of white evangelical protestants agreed with that statement by far the highest level of any religious denomination and of course the non-religious and non-christian religions had the lowest with 37 and 35 percent agreeing respectively which can i just say still way too fucking high yeah yeah again if they're talking about wealth disparity i'm listening american culture and way of life started doing economics backwards about 40 years ago but, I'm not listening because it's white Protestants

talking about getting persecuted by civil rights ever since the 50s. I think we need to stop letting people say conservative and we start correcting that. It's regressive. That's the correct word

for what's happening. And like I said, there's a lot more to talk about from this study, right? Fucking 31% of americans think that god intended america to be a promised land 42 percent of the people they surveyed think that america has become too quote soft and feminine jesus right but i want to emphasize the 1950s question because to me it symbolizes the root of the problem with the religious right in this

country right they want to go back to something that literally never existed, right? They want to go back, even if it means almost half of them are talking about a time when they couldn't vote or use the same water fountain. Because if this past Tuesday taught us anything,

it's that religious people never let a little thing like reality get in the way of their delusions. Yeah. And speaking of Tuesday, I still have live result election maps to refresh. So we're going to take a quick break to tell you a little bit more about vulgarity for charity. Hey, podcast listener, you know, on days like today, it can be hard not to feel extremely and terrifyingly helpless. And while we mentioned it at the top of the headlines, it's worth pointing out again that there's good that you can do right now

over at modestneeds.org. Sure, we love the fun and roasty parts of the fundraiser, but it's really about helping, for example, a single mom get her lights turned back on. Or a family of six not lose their heat. And while you might not be able to will Raphael Warnock an extra percentage point in the Senate race, believe me, I've tried,

we want to encourage you to head over to modestneeds.org, browse the request for help, and see how good it feels to make a life-changing difference. Vulgarity for charity, because you can only refresh a website so many times. Says you. There's no limit. A man wrote the Bible. A whore is what she wants. If it's a legitimate race. It is your slut, right? Cooking can be fun.

Hey, I'm proud of a man. This week in Misogyny. Look, I'm not usually a ray of sunshine on this segment, and for good reason. But I'm going to allow myself a brief glimmer of hope this week because women won big in this year's election. I mean, again, with all those qualifiers, Noah mentioned about how low our expectations have to be to consider anything in American politics a win, but still. Holy shit, in a year that should have been a referendum of Joe Biden's leadership by any modern historical standard, this one was, as much as anything, a referendum on how dangerous the Supreme Court has become. And guys, if you're breathing a sigh of relief as the results roll in,

you need to thank the women in your life for making it happen. So as we're leading into this, women were voting at historical levels. Voter registration among women was up much more than among men. When asked what was the single most important issue motivating their vote,

the most popular answer was inflation at 31%, but right on its heels at 27% was abortion. And more than three quarters of the people that answered abortion voted blue. But we don't have to rely on exit polls to know how reproductive rights did. Five states had abortion-related referendums as well. California, Michigan, and Vermont all had ballot measures that would enshrine abortion access into law, and all three won. Hell, in Vermont, the measure carried every single county. On top of that, Kentucky had a measure that would outlaw abortion, and voters rejected it. And Montana had this bullshit born-alive bill that would have restricted abortion in ways that they tried to be coy about.

But voters saw through that bullshit, too. It's not official at the time of this record, but it looks pretty solidly doomed given what we know now. And not only did abortion carry ballot measures, it carried politicians as well. At the same time that Republicans were deleting anti-abortion statuses from their social media presence, a lot of Democratic candidates really leaned into the issue. People like Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Patty Murray in Washington, Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, and extremely vulnerable House Democrat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. All of them won their races. So yeah, abortion access carried the day, even in deep red states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana. Women's concern for their own bodily autonomy is a deal breaker.

And Republicans who have made their living scaremongering about this shit for the last 40 years are learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind. I mean, hell hath no fury because there's no such thing as hell. But still, don't fuck with us. And on that note, I'll hand you back over to Noah, Heath, and Eli. Thank you, Lucinda. And in circuit shitty news, in a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled last week that the Miss United States of America pageant has a right to ban transgender

women from competing, claiming that not letting the pageant discriminate is a violation of the organization's free speech. Yeah, well, because, yeah, because fuck you and your kind is speech, I guess. Yeah. Also, for younger listeners, Circuit City was the name of a retail store where you would go physically and you could buy things.

We'll explain later. No, Heath, I would actually, if we can, just can you try and explain to the younger listeners what the fuck a Circuit City sold? Because I'm finding myself really struggling. They sold wax cylinders for your phonograph.

That had batteries on them. You know batteries, those things that are everywhere? Well, they weren't always. Used to be in Circuit City. Anyway. Okay. So this lawsuit was brought by a woman named Anita Green, who has the disturbing. And can I just say, frankly, disgusting kink of wanting to participate in beauty pageants. But whatever, you know, free country, just not in front of my kids.

Okay. Anyway, Green prepared to compete in the Miss Oregon contest in 2019, a Miss United States of America pageant event, but learned that her application was being rescinded and her entry fee was being returned with the director. I love this fucking name. Denise Smith telling Green that, quote, this is a natural pageant. Oh, it's a natural pageant. Yeah, beauty pageants are all about not changing one's appearance in any way. And just naturally walking out on a stage, right? As they happen in nature.

Yeah. No, I'm imagining David Attenborough narrating a beauty pageant as though he's just happened upon one now. And I don't think I'll be truly happy now until that happens. Look at the plumage. Yeah. So Green naturally brought a lawsuit where the pageant's lawyers, by the way, argued that the event is designed for, quote, natural born women to spread a message of, quote, biological female empowerment. End quote.

What? Really? Empowerment. Yeah. Not adding, especially the bathing suit portion. God, those women are so fucking empowered in the bathing suit portion.

Listen, that trans swimmer from UPenn won a fucking race or something one time. We can't have the entire swimsuit competition be compromised. That can't happen. We have to give you your out of the day. I'm an avid fan of women's collegiate swimming, by the way. I have been have been for years yeah imagine all the bigots realizing that they can't deploy the unnatural advantage argument without admitting they want to fuck trans chicks now

a lot of brow sweat coming out of this story no because then i wouldn't be able i would i would be able to say but then i would but then i would your ears are bleeding yeah so as will surprise nobody a donald trump appointee and a george bush appointee make up the majority of this opinion with a bill clinton appointee offering the dissenting opinion of you guys are idiots that's not how speech works no it's almost's almost like elections matter. But hey, you know what? I feel like nobody needs to be reminded of that today. Yes, they do.

Yeah, Ohio. For example, Ohio. Should have voted for Hillary Clinton. And in Investigate Gate News tonight, we have a quick follow-up

on the ongoing story out of Seattle Pacific University that we've been covering for the last several months. As you'll recall, a group of students at the Methodist College decided to stage a sit-in last summer to draw attention to the school's discriminatory hiring practices, and damn,

did they draw some attention. Before the sit-in was over, there was national press, a lawsuit by alumni claiming that the practice was devaluing their degrees, and an effort by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to investigate the school's hiring practices to make sure that they weren't violating state laws. And on the latter point, SPU sued the state, accusing the AG of intimidation because he implied that they had to follow the law. Right. Yeah. Later that day, they were kind of tired after lunch. So they're also suing a no loitering sign as part of the same thing. Yeah, right. They had to run away from that sign out of fear and intimidation, Noah. Fear and intimidation.

Yeah. On a related note, all the cops who pulled me over going 90 expect a summons. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So this lawsuit claimed that the attorney general didn't even have the right to investigate the schools because that would interfere with the school's First Amendment right to, quote, govern itself according to religious principle, end quote. Because even reminding them that laws exist is a bridge too far in the mind of overprivileged American Christians.

And if that sounds like a bullshit argument to you, you've made the same assessment of it as the federal judge who dismissed the suit last Wednesday. That's the new part of this story. He pointed out that if the SPU is charged, they can point to any First Amendment violations they want to in court. And if they're not charged, there couldn't be any

First Amendment violations. Hey, tell you what, we'll let you know when you're being detained. Then you can yell about it if you want. We'll let you know ahead, though. It'll happen first. Wait, wait, wait. So you're just saying laws can just be out there stalking the streets ready to strike at any second just in case i break them this is madness you know who else mentioned laws the nazis yeah they had laws that they said out loud hitler. Yep. Millions. Now, if you're inclined

to take SPU aside, you might think that even an investigation, if sufficiently publicized, could create public pressure on the school to change their policies, even if they were never

charged with anything, right? You'd be wrong, according to a federal judge whose job it is to decide shit like that. But federal judges are very often wrong. So, okay.

But it turns out that it wasn't the ag who publicized it after reading press reports about the sit-in ferguson just sent a letter to the school saying hey you guys aren't doing abc or d right because if you are that would be against the law he didn't issue a press release about it he didn't go down to the sit-in and get a fucking photo op he just sent a letter politely asking if they broke the law and they sued him for it so dismissal or no you can see why that kind of staggering sense of entitlement is newsworthy yeah that said precedent set i just did a search through my phone for all the times andrew has sent me eli

did you just blank so yeah andrew get ready to sue the fuck out of yourself. Intimidation. And finally tonight, Ron DeSantis just declared himself to be the Godhead. Like he's fucking David Ike after getting struck by lightning and then shitting himself. And just to add some terrifying context, Ronnie Deez nuts is the front runner in terms of his betting odds of becoming the next president of the United States at about 30% implied probability of winning in 2024. And he's well ahead of Biden and Harris. Biden's at 15%, Harris at 8%. Donald Trump is at 23%,

by the way. Sorry, data is really depressing right now. It is. So, during a recent campaign ad, DeSantis declared that he's a fighter sent by God to defend the downtrodden American Christian against the overprivileged minority groups who dominate American politics. That was his ad. Jesus Christ.

Somewhere out there is a cartoon character repeatedly saying, well, at least it can't get any worse that needs to shut the fuck up. Oh, God, I'm so excited

to watch those two kaijus of awful fight. DeSantis has no idea the chalky, spray-tanned insanity that's headed his way, and I can't wait to watch it!

They're both in the same state even at this point. So, the campaign ad in question, and I can't wait to watch it. They're both in the same state even. Yeah. So the campaign ad in question was a reboot of a very famous and topical speech recently from 1978 by some conservative radio guy during an appearance

for the Future Farmers of America. That topical. That guy, whoever it was, wrote a speech called So God Made a Farmer. And it was all about how growing plants Christianly and being a godly redneck bigot was a key part of God's plan for America. DeSantis changed a few words, making himself like a warrior poet demigod instead of a farmer and he recycled it here's the start of the ad quote and on the eighth day god looked down on his planned paradise that would be florida

in this case and said it looks like a dick yeah and god said i need a protector so god made a fighter god said i need somebody willing to get up before dawn, kiss his family goodbye, travel thousands of miles for no other reason than to serve the people, to save their jobs, their livelihoods, their liberty, their happiness. So God made

a fighter demigod warrior poet, me. Thousands of miles? It's Florida, man. Key West to pensacola is not a thousand miles is he talking about employing the ted cruz strategy or did he mean like you know sending unwitting immigrants thousands of miles when he said that there it is i think he's i think he's just softening up his base for the war he's gonna to start for oil. It's a classic Republican strategy. You guys probably haven't heard of it. That's fair.

Yeah, so it continues like that for a while. DeSantis also claims that God sent him to challenge wisdom, which was accidentally honest, and also to advocate truth in the midst of hysteria. And on top of that, God also said, I need somebody who will look a mother in the eyes and tell her that her child will be in school. She can keep her job, go to church, eat dinner with friends and hold the hand of an aging parent taking their breath for the last time. What a weird addition.

Like what failed to mention that the reason that parent is taking their final breath is because he put her kid back in school and reopened the restaurants but okay uh uh noah noah old people dying in florida is a net good for the world let me enjoy the part of the poem i like that was a nice part i like that stanzas yeah so just a quick reminder about the warrior of God here. Based on the career of Ron DeSantis, that means the main enemies of God are black people, trans people, gay people, the Special Olympics, and people who don't want to get a deadly virus. Those are the two teams, just so everybody knows. Yeah, and also immigrants and Disney.

And quick before anybody depresses me by reminding me of how lopsided his victory was on Tuesday, we're going to close the headlines for the night. Heath, Eli, thanks as always. Bugs Bunny saws off Florida. And when we come back, Michael Marshall will be here to distract us from all this American shit for a minute. Your family will be happier. your friends will be happier, and the nation will be stronger. Hey, Eli, what you doing?

Yeah, you've been quiet in your room for like 10 minutes. That's not usually a good sign. Relax, guys. I'm just writing some letters to voters. Eli, that's a nice tactic and everything, but the midterms are over. Yeah, people already voted. Oh, I know. I'm just writing to people who already voted in deep red districts.

See? Oh, well, I'm not going to read what that says on the air. Yeah, do not do that. But Eli, this must be costing you a fortune to send that all out. Not at all, silly. I'm using stamps.com. Oh, what's stamps.com? Stamps.com is your one-stop shop for all your shipping and mailing needs.

For more than 20 years, stamps.com has been indispensable for over 1 million businesses. Get access to the USPS and UPS services you need to run your business right from your computer. No lines, no traffic, no hassle. You can even save money with major discounts on USPS and UPS shipping rates up to 86% off. Wow, that does sound good, Eli.

Where do I sign up? This holiday season trade late nights for silent nights and get started with Stamps.com today. Sign up with promo code SCATHING for a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to Stamps.com,

click on the microphone at the top of the page and enter SCATHING. And to clarify, Stamps.com does not endorse using their services to send voters in Ohio the black dot. Well, then they should have put it on their website. One of the chief functions of this show is to forewarn our listeners of the kind of bullshit that their crazy uncle is going to spring on them at Thanksgiving. After all, you want to know what the divorced from reality news is saying,

but you don't want to actually consume the divorced from reality news. And that's where we come in. Yeah. How to win Thanksgiving every day of the year. That's what we're shooting for. Yeah. Right. They're stupid and wrong on all the other days, too.

You need to just keep winning. Right. Beating them down. Or you could poison them. Autopsies are very rare in people over the age of 50. Now there's so much beeping. But there's more divorced from

reality news than there is us, which is why we occasionally have to tag in our medical misinformation specialist, Michael Marshall, for a segment that we call Who's Woo? Marsh, welcome back, sir. Hey, guys. Always lovely to be here.

The correspondent from the reality that we're all divorced from. So I'm going to show you what the other side is all about. Yeah, there you go. Good to see you sober again, Marsh. Good to see you sober again. All right. So who are we going to be talking about today? So, so far, when it comes to Who's Woo,

I've sort of focused on a certain kind of woo merchant. You know, it's fair to say that Brian Rose, David Avocado-Wolfe, and Joseph McCullough, they all share a number of similarities. Resting fuckface.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh, a lump of coal where their hearts used to be. I can say it because I'm not in the UK. Fraud. You can say what you like in your jurisdiction, Noah.

That is absolutely true. But today, I want to kind of zag where those three have zigged. I know you don't mean that you want to crash your car into them, but I kind of wish that you did. Oh, so when Noah says it, it's for IAP and the new guy. So today, I'm going to talk about someone who isn't American, isn't male, to the best of my knowledge, isn't an osteopath. And that was quite hard to find in a Who's Who segment.

And I also want to talk about someone who I think might not even be a cynical grifter. Because I want to talk about someone who perfectly illustrates how a personal health crisis can provide just the right nudge to disengage you from the mainstream. And before you know it, you're careering off into radicalization, extremism, and this whole alternative health ecosystem. Okay, I reserve the right to cut off your mic

if this turns out to be Eli, though. Okay, when the woo's woo is about Eli or me one day, and it will be, it will be, I feel like that day, Marsh is going to be slow playing it, really smooth. We won't know until the end

when Marsh is like standing behind us somehow. Yeah. Some sort of device. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you about the rabbits, Marsh. Not sure what this has to do

with my new nutrition. Ooh, a lake. So, Kay Allison Shemarani, or Kate Shemarani to her friends, was born in Nottingham, England in November 1965. She trained as an actual nurse, and by 2009, she was performing non-clinical beauty treatments for a living as part of a beauty clinic. So far, so fairly regular. But then in 2012,

she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And there aren't good breast cancers, but as far as I can understand it, and I'm no cancer expert here, hers wasn't a bad, bad breast cancer. It was one of those cut it out and then do some follow-up chemo just in case we missed anything type of cancers. So she underwent a mastectomy. And then when she was offered the follow-up chemotherapy, she completely refused it and turned instead to Gerson therapy. Okay. So at the risk of stepping on how bullshit is its toes, what is Gerson therapy. Okay, so at the risk of stepping on how bullshit is its toes, what is Gerson therapy? We did a movie about this.

It's so dumb. Yeah, Gerson therapy. For those who don't know much about Gerson therapy, it's a bogus cancer cure that consists of a fairly complex regime of raw fruit smoothies. You've got to take one every hour for 13 hours. Coffee enemas, you have about eight a day. There it is.

And then a constant supply of supplements. Okay, I feel like complex and regime are both generous terms here, but okay, yeah. A whole shitload of also works. Specific list

rather than complex regime, sure. But Gerson therapy is often promoted and sold by clinics in Turkey, Hungary, and Mexico. So places where legislation and regulation struggles

to keep up with extreme climbs. In fact, Kate herself traveled to the Northern Baja Clinic in Mexico, where she was treated by a guy called Patrick Vickers with Gerson therapy. So if it weren't for my midterm hangover, I'd make a joke about how silly it is that some countries are too dysfunctional to pass a no pretending smoothies cure cancer law. But as it stands. I'm also curious about the clinical trials that Gerson did to come up with that therapy. Like, how many different

ass beverages did they try out before they landed on coffee? How many other drinks in other orifices did they try? Was there an ass decaf control group? There's a lot of questions about that. Green tea to the ear. Yeah, there's options in there.

I feel like they didn't try that. My favorite part about Gerson therapy, like sort of giving away the fact that it's an obvious scam, is that they don't let you use traditional juicers for your smoothie. Yeah, right, right. You have to use the fancy squeeze juicers

that they sell you because those ones have all the cancer-fighting nutrients. And they are so expensive. This whole thing is ludicrously expensive, ruinously expensive. And fun fact, in 2017 I sat in a room with Patrick Vickers

and I watched him ask individual cancer patients sat in the audience specifically which chemotherapy medications they were taking and then tell them to quit taking those medications immediately or his bullshit thing wouldn't work. Which drug do you want? That one?

Oh, no, you need to stop taking that one right now. Otherwise, my thing won't work. It is genuinely one of the most dangerous rooms I have ever been in in my life. Yeah, well, and you sat next to me on a panel where I was 20 minutes overdue for an emergency shit. So that's saying something. Oh, what a better world it would have been

if your positions had been reversed. Is that ass coffee? No. No, it's not. You should go to the doctor. So another noteworthy thing about that lecture

that Vickers was giving in the room that I sat in was when Vickers explained that if patients from the UK wanted to come to his clinic, his like 30,000 pounds for two weeks clinic that's in Mexico

to have his Gerson treatment, they could just contact his girlfriend, who's a British nurse who helped get British patients to his clinic. And that girlfriend was Kate Shemirani.

Okay, when the instructions to get a medical treatment involve like calling up a machine that has a voice modulator guy being like, go to the warehouse on the outskirts of town wearing a blindfold. Then Jason Statham will throw you into a van. Do not ask him any questions. Don't do that if that's what the setup is.

That's not how medicine goes. I mean, don't do that. Also don't do when the practitioner says, so I had a patient who I'm currently fucking and you should try and see her to get access to my miracle cure. That's not ideal. How do you show gratitude to your doctors, Marsh? I don't understand. Yeah, we've got an NHS. We don't have to stoop so low, Eli.

I know that the system's different in America. I disagree. Your elderly are really fucking your country. Well, by the time that Vickers was directing all those cancer patients to Kate in order to get her to sign them up for his clinic, Kate had already by this point spent five years

taking loads of woo courses on nutrition, alternative therapies and alternative cancer cures, all sorts of stuff. She's promoting laetrile, which is an arsenic-like substance that's made from ground up peach pits. She was promoting mistletoe therapy,

which is based on the idea that mistletoe grows on a tree and takes over the tree in a parasitic way, similar to how cancer cells start to take over the organism that they're inhabiting. So I reckon mistletoe will sort cancer. That is genuinely that. Like homeopathically? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. It is kind of got a homeopathic thing going on. Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophic medicine, ludicrous. She had a whole thing on Chinese herbs, pretty much anything else that gets promoted as an alternative cancer cure, she'd promote it.

And she's taken all of these things herself as best I can tell, and she's still here. So they've got to all work, right? It seems like they just decide at random which stuff goes in your ass and which doesn't. Like nothing about the peach pits or the mistletoe. And Marsh, I just want to say I'm very proud of you for not mentioning that she looks like she got booped on the nose

by the ring girl on her way out the door. This is very, she's taking the high road, Marsh. Taking the high road. Well, this is the thing, right? Because she has branded herself as the natural nurse in a toxic world, which is particularly ironic given clearly how much Botox and lip filler she has been using for some time. It's by the by, but so much for your natural nurse in a toxic world there. Well, but in her defense, if the parts of nature I was hanging

out with were mostly arsenic-like peach pits and mistletoe, I'd be struck by its toxicity too. So bear that all in mind, then fast forward a few years. What do you think happened when the natural nurse in a toxic world suddenly found herself as a nurse in a pandemic world? You know, she very quickly became one of the most prolific spreaders of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in the entirety of the UK. Okay, Marsh, I don't want to spoil things for myself here, but I am loving that you are using the past tense about this woman. Come on, big money. Come on, big money. Big money, big money, big money. So her COVID pseudoscience, her COVID paranoia, it all started really, really soon into the pandemic. And she was claiming immediately, the media invented the virus in order to scare us. She was doing rallies. She was doing all

these different meetings and becoming a big figure online. She was interviewed on TV, in fact, explaining that there's absolutely no evidence that the pandemic even exists or that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is even a real virus. And in the same interview, she claimed that there is no vaccine that has ever been proven to be safe or effective. It's so weird how she holds them

to such a higher standard than arsenic and mistletoe. Or the Nickelodeon slime she injects into her lips. Yeah, it's a weird... Okay, but I just want to be clear about the theory here. The world government made a fake virus and then killed millions of people

with a real virus? Or there's like a big water tank with COVID victims and clones of Hugh Jackman somewhere? What is the claim that's being made? Well, I mean, the claim that's being made will start to escalate and will come to that. But bear in mind, by this point,

when she's being interviewed, she'd already had her nursing license suspended for making all these claims. Well, then why the fuck did they put her on TV? Right? Right? You were first in line here this morning. You know what? Why don't we just interview you as well?

Yeah. Your loudly spouting nonsense you might make for good TV was basically it. And her dangerous misinformation, by this point, the reason she got suspended was all this dangerous misinformation, including the stuff she was spouting,

she'd go on to spout on TV. It found its way in front of the nursing regulator. And so she had to have a hearing to have her license suspended. And that hearing didn't go super well, not least because she turned up not with a lawyer, but instead she was being represented

by the anti-5G conspiracy theorist and twice be reasonable guest, Mark Steele. Oh, Jesus Christ. Yes! That's amazing. Mark Steele sounds adorably like he's going to invite you

to his corner of the bar for a pint and a tail And then ends up being the reason you never go back to that particular pub 100%, absolutely 100% So Mark Steele is incredibly dodgy as an individual The stuff that he spreads, the dangerous stuff that he spreads And her association with Steele just deepened and deepened over the course of the pandemic Throughout 2021, the two of them organised and spoke at numerous illegal rallies, breaking all the lockdown laws to a point where she was charged by the police for that. And then there was one notable appearance at Trafalgar

Square in July 2021, where she talked to the crowd about healthcare workers who'd administered the vaccines and said, get their names, email them to me. We're collecting all that. At the Nuremberg trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial and they hung. If you're a doctor or a nurse, now is the time to get off that bus. Oh, what a terrible thing to say. It's supposed to be hanged. They were hanged.

No, okay. Okay. As bad as promoting violence is, it's nice to have her on record saying that people who cause preventable illness should be hanged for it, though, right? Yeah. She gave herself enough rope to hang herself.

That's kind of funny. I'm not saying we're going to do it. I mean, we would just use 5G to create it. Well, yeah, obviously. But it's nice to hear. It's right there. Because that was dumb. It's weird how many people go from

I think pear juice is good for you to murder anyone who works at CBS, right? You think that filter, that funnel would be thinner at the bottom. Arsenic pear juice or peach or whatever. Oh, yes. It's a very wide funnel. And there's more than just the CBS stuff at the end of it, because if all that wasn't worrying enough for years, she has been sliding into more and more explicit conspiracy theory extremism. And that's what she was disseminating to her 50,000 plus Facebook fans before her page got banned. And even today, she's got a very active Telegram group of tens of thousands of people.

And she shares dozens of posts a day of some really extreme stuff. Okay, Marsh, I know you're constantly using apps like that to keep tabs on these crazy people and going undercover to those events. I like to think that the algorithms of the Internet, they're pretty sure you're Neo and that they're like Smith is going to show up to deal with you. But the whole thing makes me happy. They're confused by you. More like Neo Nazi. But I appreciate your sacrifice, Marge. I appreciate your sacrifice.

Oh, well, speaking of which, Kate Shemarani, she's called 9-11, a false flag operation. She's repeated QAnon conspiracy theories. She says there is a large scale conspiracy by the global elite to sexually abuse children. And not the Catholic church. She means a different one. A different one, exactly, yeah.

She's told her many, many followers that there are satanic cults that put satanic messaging into music videos and that are responsible for Christians being persecuted all over the world by, quote, pedophiles who are all in bed with one another. Which, to be fair, sound like some awfully confused or awfully disappointed pedophiles. No, you pretend to be the kid this time. We need a chore chart or something. I don't want to hold the lunchbox. She's talked about

how learning about the Committee of 300 gave her, quote, an education in the New World Order of the Illuminati, the top families, and who owns what.

So the Committee of 300, for those who aren't aware, is an anti-Semitic hawk about there being just 300 Jewish men who rule the entire world. Right. No, yeah. Committee of 300 is basically a term for people who find

the protocols of the elders of Zion too wordy. Yes. Okay. And if you mention either one of those things, we know you weren't rooting for the prosecution at Nuremberg. You can't have both. Right. She's there on the side of the defense. She's got Mark Steele representing. All right, guys, be honest. I know the 300 the side of the defense. She's got Mark Steele representing her. All right, guys, be honest.

I know the 300 of the committee isn't real, but do you guys think I'd make it in if it was? I feel like I'm top 300 Jews, right? Come on. I've got a podcast. Magic. So Shemarani has repeatedly claimed that Black Lives Matter was a psyop created by George Soros,

who she has explicitly compared to Adolf Hitler. And she has used images of Hitler when talking about Soros, put the two together. She's talked about the genocide of white farmers in South Africa. So there's a fucking red flag. She says that is also funded by George Soros. And she's explained that the quote, biggest cause of death amongst the African black Americans is abortion. They're killing your babies before they even get out of the womb. Who funds that? George Soros has planned parenthood, close quote. Okay. So George Soros is genociding white people and black people. That cancels out. Is he equal opportunity? I don't understand what she's complaining about.

Now she's also amongst all of this made it very clear that she's not anti-Semitic because she's got Jewish friends who know her really well. Oh, well, also amongst all of this, made it very clear that she's not anti-Semitic because she's got Jewish friends who know her really well. Oh, well, there you go. Yeah. Fun side note, by the way, or whatever the opposite of fun is, I guess. In the Wikipedia article about her, when it gets to the part about her claiming Black Lives Matter as a George Soros

psy-op, there's a parenthetical that says, well, he does support so-called racial justice groups, so she's kind of right. Susan, guerrilla skeptics, you guys want to do a little page cleanup for us? They're well-actually on Wikipedia. Again. And so that concludes the tale of Kate Shamerani,

from an alt-med curious beautician to a cancer patient defying medical advice to an anti-vaccine rabble rouser into a full-on violence-inciting, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist. And while it demonstrates how major crises can lead you on the path to radicalization, I think it also shows that you don't have to be a cynical grifter or a deliberate liar

to be worthy of an entry in Who's Woo. All right. Well, thanks for the information, Marsh. I'm not sure if I agree with your classification at the end, but I suppose we can all decide for ourselves whether she's murdering people with her lies on purpose

or by accident, the deliberateness of those lies. One way or the other, of course, we're always looking forward to the next installment of Who's Woo. Before we flip the sign, I need to remind you one more time that Vulgarity for Charity is underway. Modest Needs is always a great charity, but it's all the more important at times like these when a lot of families are facing potential poverty because of rising energy costs and inflation.

Your donation has never been more important. Plus, we'll tell your boss what a piece of shit he is. Win-win. Just check the show notes and you'll find all the info on how to play along. Anyway, that's all the blessing we've got for you tonight. We'll be back in 10,022 minutes with more. If you can't wait that long, be on the lookout for a brand new episode of our sister show's hot friend, Godawful Movies, debuting at 7 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday,

and an even newer episode of our half-sister show, Citation, debuting at noon Eastern on Wednesday. Obviously, this wouldn't really be a show if I neglected to thank Heath Enright for netting Democrats full control of the Michigan legislature at his first midterm in the state. I need to thank Eli Bosnick for not inspiring any new ballot measures specifically aimed at him in New Jersey. I need to thank the lovely and talented Lucinda Lutions in advance for carrying Raphael Warnock to

victory in the upcoming runoff. I also want to thank Josh for providing this week's Farnsworth quote, but most of all, of course, I want to thank this week's most marvelous mammals, who I promise to thank by name next week when I haven't just stayed up till 3 a.m. manually squeezing my heart when it refused to beat for nine straight hours. Sorry, I promise I have extra good compliments for you next week. Together, this indeterminate number of people helped keep this show going by giving us money. Not everybody has the money it takes to give us money, but if you do, you can make a per-episode donation at patreon.com slash scathingatheist whereby you'll earn access to an extended app-free version

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the Law Offices of P. Andrew Torres, Tim Robinson handles our social media, and our audio engineers mark karkos over the music in this episode which was used with permission i said most of the words if you have questions comments be the third should find all the contact info on the contact page at scathingadius.com I am also ready. And we'll start with intro so we can test your voice twice back to back. That's right.

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