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Truth and Reconciliation Day is a relatively new Canadian holiday that recognizes the struggle of indigenous peoples in Canada and the world while also working on healing rifts and countering racial hate. Len Morissette is a co-founder of C.I.A. Solutions, a majority Indigenous owned film and advertising company, and a former president of the Alberta Native Friendship Centre Association. This conversation was done in recognition and in the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation to appropriately honour the day.

Links
https://www.youtube.com/@CIASOLUTIONS1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NgvG_QEbWqM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_for_Truth_and_Reconciliation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Broncos_bus_crash

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It is obvious that Trump plans to use fear about immigrant crime as a wedge issue in the upcoming election. The current focal point for this effort is on Haitian migrants in Springfield, OH. Is anything about this factual?

Links
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/15/politics/video/sotu-bash-vance-haitian-immigrants-full-interview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Ohio,_cat-eating_hoax
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/jd-vance-haitian-immigrants/index.html
https://www.fairus.org/news/congress/angel-moms-detail-horrific-consequences-open-borders-congress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_intentional_homicide_rate#Homicide_rates_by_year._CDC
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/canton/ohio-woman-eat-cat-canton-police-bodycam-footage-arrest-springfield/95-204df879-5de1-4a07-9aab-10d19aca3ba4
https://reason.com/2021/09/02/jd-vance-surrenders-to-the-politics-of-hate/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_meat

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The first (and likely only) debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is over. All of Trump's pending legal issues and have been delayed until after the election. And Taylor Swift has given her endorsement. Are we almost out of election stuff to talk about?

Links
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/walzs-military-record-vances-accusations-stolen-valor/story?id=112618991
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2024/03/07/lawmaker-who-claims-to-be-a-retired-rear-admiral-was-actually-demoted/
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/jd-vance-school-shootings-fact-of-life/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-sundown-town-rally-racism-b2605946.html
https://azluminaria.org/2024/09/13/standing-ovation-from-tucsons-trump-supporters-a-do-or-die-election/
https://www.tiktok.com/@geekynerdbitchcarmen/video/7413550942223666462
https://apnews.com/article/trump-vance-north-carolina-60de08931c1a964e8e1fb21d3778d35e

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When a lone gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th, we saw online the birth of a new conspiracy belief. It has heavily influenced a large number of people on the left to participate in conspiracism. In this episode we take a closer look at the events with an eye to examine some of the ways people engaged poorly with the facts in order to support conspiracy beliefs that have become damaging to the prospect of a shared reality.

Links
Peter Gabriel Family Picture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0y23xlMSw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_incident
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/can-doug-mills-photo-of-a-bullet-and-president-trump-be-real-yes-heres-how
Jeff Ostroff July 20 in-depth explanation video (good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7PdhHC2zr0
Jeff Ostroff follow-up video. Corrects a few mistakes, more info (good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLRKpMxtW6A
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/10/politics/trump-campaign-rallies-outstanding-invoices/index.html
Trump's wrestling experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NsrwH9I9vE
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/23/obama-chef-died-drowned-accident-marthas-vineyard
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/sicily-ship-investigation-lynch-1.7304159

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Notes
Daniel Loxton is an author and science communicator. He has published books about skepticism and was previously the editor of Junior Skeptic magazine. Daniel, David Bloomberg and I discuss skepticism, its importance, and how we can promote its presence in our information world in this episode.

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Loxton
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/product-liability/roundup-lawsuit-update/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hotez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Festinger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_West

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Topics covered in brief:
Democrats
Walz is VP. How is that going?

Harris and Walz have been doing rallies that are *packed* and very high energy.

Polls: many polls now show Harris as climbing and leading, though still by a small margin. 

Even now almost 4 full weeks after Biden dropped out of the race there are still left-leaning influencers who threaten each other semi-casually over their stance on whether Biden should have or shouldn't have dropped out of the race.

Republicans
Trump has had very few events. Almost no live events since the RNC.

For those concerned about a Trump presidency the influence of TikTok must not be under reported.

Conspiracy beliefs continue to abound in the wake of the shooting in Pennsylvania on July 13.

Among the speculation about Trump's smaller number of appearances is a lot of conspiracy talk about how maybe Trump doesn't feel the need to try so hard because he's already planning to cheat in Nov.

JD Vance has continued to underwhelm in both the polls and at rallies.

We're not doing a full recap of all the court cases against Trump this time around. Just the one: the hush money trial. 

RFK Jr
RFK Jr is not a serious candidate.

Links
https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-project-2025-bloodless-coup
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-joins-tiktok-video-platform-he-once-sought-ban-2024-06-02/
https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-rfk-jr-ballot-new-york-residency-states-f96d46318524fad967271fed292aa212

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My take on the Imane Khelif debacle.

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TBD

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Zealotry in a single person is characterized as the amplification of the importance of one single subject to the point that all other subjects have little or no relative importance. Anyone can engage in zealotry and it can lead to many negative consequences for the zealot. How this manifests in social scenarios is discussed in this episode.


Links

https://www.newsweek.com/los-angeles-synagogue-attack-everything-we-know-1916345

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No notes for this episode. David and I sat down to record on a completely different topic and then decided very suddenly to do this conversation instead. Was it the right decision? Would this impulsiveness be good in other situations?