WTW114: Back to AmericaFest, Where the Grift Oerfloweth

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:41 Thomas: Hello and welcome to Where There's Woke. I'm Thomas, that over there is Lydia. How you doing?

0:00:45 Lydia: Oh, hi. Doing well.

0:00:48 Thomas: Whoa, what's going on here?

0:00:49 Lydia: Well, you know, have Vivaldi on my mind. So exactly,

0:00:55 Thomas: Okay, well, so here's the deal. Here's the deal. When I originally started covering this, there's so much much talking about America Fest with three K's there was so there's so much then I got really excited about this thing that I want to tell you all about and then of course I was like all right we'll just do this in order and then I get buried in a million things that you know to go in order um then after we finally caught up and finished that last one we got out after some hours of classical music research and uh you know getting getting our heads straight on that yeah um I was like all right let's just skip right to the thing it's like there's a whole bunch in day two day two video is eight hours long I've watched it all uh the theme of day two is it's grift day.

I mean, every day is grift today, but this is like, I I mean these people are pretty savvy event planners. Remember God, I think it was 2016 when, I remember along the way of, you know, basically everyone thinking Hillary was going to win it easily. I remember watching the Democratic convention and the Republican convention. And I remember I think the Republican one was first and

0:01:06 Lydia: Yes of career changes yeah mm-hmm yeah you that sounds

0:02:06 Thomas: It was just like sucked. It just wasn't good. And it was like, who's running this thing? And then the Democratic one was like really like sharp and the quality and the showmanship and the just the technical stuff was like way, way better. And it and it all felt like, yeah, no, that's about right. It's like we've got a party that, probably you has people knows how who to do stuff and then this disaster, but not any longer. That's no longer the case. I think that they've had enough time to, you build out a network of fellow white Christian nationalists, essentially.

0:02:06 Lydia: Right right tucker

0:02:41 Thomas: And they've got this thing I've talked about already, but the tech is insane. Insane so that is to say I think they did a smart idea planning too because day one they didn't really go that was like the half day and they got the headliner we already did and know Ben Shapiro and what's his name and one and day one Tucker Carlson like that's pretty big they they weren't super heavy on the grift there's a little bit and then day two I think it's like all right sneak in all the sponsored stuff you know like sneak in all the like like. This is, cell phones, but for conservatives, you this fucking watermelons, but it's conservative, it's just everything is but for conservative.

0:02:58 Lydia: Carlson yeah yeah Yeah. You don't want to lead off with that, right? Because that's going to turn everybody off. You need to like sneak it in the middle. It can't be too close towards the end because then people are starting to tune out and not picking up on it. They're smart. But

0:03:18 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure the sponsors would be bargaining for their, time slots as well. So it's like a good, you know, it just makes sense, like how They did it. It sucks to see that they're, know, you kind of savvy and have gotten better at a lot lot this stuff, um, and this organization, I mean, it's just so, it's so full of money now, so they've probably got you just really experienced, you know, event planners and tech people and stuff, which is, uh, it sucks, no one should work for them, they should all quit, but, uh, there's a lot of Christians in this country, that's the thing is watching this, it's hard to, you know, it's all like availability heuristic or whatever, it's whatever you're seeing, but when I watch this for eight straight hours, it's like, shit, everyone's Christian, huh, like, is this, no wonder, no wonder, it's so hard, we don't really see every day, you know, in California, like, or even in anyone's life, like, you every day I want to come across a random sampling of America, just like, I just want to see it, yeah.

0:03:35 Lydia: Yeah. Yep.

0:04:19 Lydia: As like a reminder.

0:04:20 Thomas: Just to give me, like, I want, you know, that thing they did where they ask, I mean, honestly, both parties are bad at this, but Republicans are stupider at it, where, where they ask like, what percentage of the Democratic Party is gay? And they're like, 90, 95%. Like, what are you talking about? Yeah. What percentage is trans? 30% or whatever. It's just these wild numbers. And you're like that's stupid. And then the thing that Democrats get wrong is like, okay, what percent of Republicans are like rich? And we estimate way too high on that, which is like I it's just funny because like that is wrong. But also it's like, Like, well, that's who controls the party and like that's whose interests are represented, whereas their thing about us is a fake thing where everyone's gay.

Not our party isn't controlled by like big trans. They just pretend it is, you point is, it breaks my heart to see competence on their side, you know, and it's gotten really competent in terms of this stuff. And so here I am watching this day, too. There's all kinds of funny like sponsor stuff I want to talk about. There's a lot of speakers I wanted to talk about. They do a little debate, which I mean, yeah, I think was a good idea. They're like, hey, in the spirit of Charlie Kirk, here's a debate. Should we legalize marijuana on one hand? They don't have like a liberal or anything, but

0:04:20 Lydia: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right.

0:04:54 Lydia: Anyone with any power.

0:05:27 Lydia: No,

0:05:27 Thomas: They do have like

0:05:28 Lydia: But they do have a difference of opinion on their side, too, on that.

0:05:30 Thomas: Yeah, they have a libertarian versus some, god awful right wing guy that, like, it's funny because he comes across normal at first and then he just is so, like, "Oh, it needs to be illegal, morally. We can't have," you know, it's like, like, okay, so they do a debate and it's kind of funny to see, it's it's funny to see the tolerance for debate go up when they're virtue signaling about it and they're like, "Charlie love debate," and that's why, blah, blah, and then, like, they'll forget about that and then it seems like there's a ton of hostility towards other viewpoints, you know, and then they're kind of ebbs and flows and then, in the middle, right, pretty much smack dab in the middle of day two, Aldean, who I recognize the name from the "Try That in a Small Town" bullshit that just seemed like really racist. I don't know, I didn't really, I don't, we dug too much into that, but, or I didn't, anyway. I think we did it for the show

0:05:32 Lydia: Yeah. Oh, right. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't

0:06:17 Thomas: Or anything, but it seemed pretty racist. It just seemed, my impression was like, oh, that looks like you're saying, try that, thing typically associated with urban people in a place where white people, I don't know, it just seemed really racist, Who knows?

0:06:17 Lydia: Think we did it. Yeah?

0:06:26 Lydia: Yeah. Let's see what happens to you. Yeah

0:06:30 Thomas: And in the midst of that, they just quickly name drop something that I was like, I'm going to check what this is. It seems kind of interesting. And that's when I went down a whole thing because they name dropped something that I think might be a multi-million. I mean, I guess in this day and age, this isn't particularly impressive, but somewhere in the neighborhood of like tens of millions of dollars. There's a couple different organizations. I'm going to focus on one. I haven't checked all the numbers for these, but something like in the neighborhood of million low tens in terms of a couple years worth of revenue, that's all going to something that I think is 94% fake. And I'm pretty sure. I want to emphasize just in case the fascists take over, like I don't have any non-public information. I'm, is, I'm going to tell you some stuff I've found and give you my impression of it.

0:06:37 Lydia: Hmm.

0:07:16 Lydia: Allegedly, allegedly. Yeah.

0:07:26 Lydia: Not doing like forensic accounting, you

0:07:28 Thomas: Yeah, I've done a little, I

0:07:28 Lydia: Know, like you haven't been hired by a firm to do anything. Yeah, yeah. But but again, it's like based off of public information, like you're nicht deep in their books, yeah.

0:07:31 Thomas: Did some light forensic accounting. No, just a little bit. Yeah. It's just my, it's my impression. It'S My impression. And I, it's wild. I couldn't stop looking at it. So we haven't even taken our first break. We're going to take our first break. And then I think we'll start with that, uh, Jason Aldean thing and go through it a little bit first uh and then we'll get to where they name drop this thing and uh we'll be on our merry way so hey please support the show patreon.com/wherethereswoke we'll take a break get to it real fast we're right we're out of time.

0:07:37 Lydia: Right.

0:08:07 Thomas: Okay, so I, I, I do want to play this just to, you know, get the context.

0:08:12 Lydia: Bevaldi.

0:08:13 Thomas: Plus, so do

0:08:14 Lydia: Jason.

0:08:20 Clip: These moments, I think about what's really important. My family, our faith, and the freedom to live our lives the way we choose. That's why I love Patriot Noble. Patriot Mobile isn't just a phone service. It's a community that upholds the values treasure. Family, faith, freedom. Join me and my family with Patriot mobile today and stay connected to what matters most.

0:08:38 Thomas: Patriot Mobile, it's phone with a bald eagle carrying a

0:08:42 Clip: To

0:08:43 Thomas: Flag of course, so you get that ad and what, well,

0:08:45 Lydia: Do You think they actually use Patriot Mobile? Oh, okay.

0:08:47 Thomas: Well, yes, because there you'll see and that's just the funny thing. It took me like a few of these to realize, like I thought my initial impression was like, oh, that's just a little commercial they stuck in there for the first like one or two. And then I realized like, Oh, wait a minute, what they're doing is they do the commercial and that'S who's like sponsoring and sometimes a part of the talk that comes next.

0:08:49 Lydia: Oh. Yeah.

0:09:06 Thomas: So that's not just like, Oh, quick commercial. Like this is they're heavily involved. You'll see. All right, we'll skip this music I've had to hear 400 times.

0:09:06 Lydia: Yeah.

0:09:13 Clip: Be to sit here and enjoy each other's company in this country.

0:09:16 Thomas: There's the least CEO. It's a thumb who comes on and talks about this guy. It's the thumb slash the thing from like Candyland. That's like the purple thing. What am I thinking of? Or it's like this, it's like this. It's like mud or something. What is that? It's just something that's like formless a blob, basically.

0:09:30 Lydia: From Candyland. Hmm. Blob. Okay. Okay.

0:09:38 Thomas: He's this guy is like melting, like it looks like his face is melting, but he's a thumb.

0:09:43 Clip: In the world, but I'm, you didn't come here to hear me speak, I'm very quickly, anyway, Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative cell phone service provider. How, how do you call us a Christian, or how does that come about? Well, it's pretty easy. We put God first in everything we do. He's at the helm of our business.

0:09:47 Thomas: They're gonna introduce some other people, who cares, but we can hear him do his little, uh, pitch here.

0:10:09 Clip: We're his stewards, and we live by biblical principles.

0:10:09 Thomas: He's CEO. He's really good with phones.

0:10:13 Clip: And here's the real beauty. We carve out a portion of every dollar and donate back to causes like this. Conservative causes.

0:10:16 Lydia: Biblical voicemail principles.

0:10:23 Thomas: Applause.

0:10:24 Clip: Yeah, that's right.

0:10:24 Thomas: Because everyone is Sleeping. Oh. Yeah, okay, yeah.

0:10:25 Lydia: Yeah.

0:10:27 Clip: And you know, when we put God First in our business, that's when Charlie took a real liking to Patriot Mobile. He came to us or we talked to he says it

0:10:27 Lydia: But how's your cell coverage? I feel like that's important.

0:10:29 Thomas: It Works in heaven really well every single sponsor that I've seen is like, and that's why Charlie just fucking loved this thing. He just was all about it might be true because, like, I mean, he also was good at getting money. Like, they say that was his main skill was like, you and that's very wise to, like, some of these people. That is a good skill. You... I don't mean morally good. It's a skill that helps in this kind of work.

0:10:41 Lydia: Yeah, oh, they have to. Yeah?

0:10:55 Lydia: Yeah. And politics?

0:10:57 Thomas: Politicians. Yeah. Politicians and stuff. And but every single one of them will be like. And that's why Charlie loved it. He loved the product. And we talked together all the time. Your best friends,

0:10:57 Lydia: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

0:11:06 Clip: An admirable thing to do, all companies should put God first, and that's what we want to really do, and I encourage everyone in here to put God first, and so last thing I want to do is I want introduce a couple of

0:11:16 Thomas: Okay. So then he's going to introduce his wife who's the COO, and then Britney, and then I think bit a later Jason Aldean, I think he comes in a bit later. As I'm scrolling through, so let's skip to that, yeah.

0:11:25 Lydia: Okay. Okay.

0:11:39 Clip: We'll ask you some questions because we know that you've been through some hard times, but you've held your head up strong, and both of you guys in 2021, you came out powerfully for the cause of the movement, and you said things that people didn't necessarily agree with in the country world, and you went forward. How did you protect your family? How did you continue to be strong, and what kind of influence did you have on Jason? Well, I am very if you know, me, I'm very outspoken, I'm very bold, I just don't really care what people people think, which I think is a characteristic that the Lord gave me and knew that I was going to be in this position, honestly. I'm just used to people criticizing us, criticizing everything that we do.

So at that point, me and Jason in the kitchen one day were like, okay, we feel this way, we know so many people do, but a lot of people are afraid to speak out or lose their job, lose their career, maybe a record deal. So is this something that, because of the position we're in, we're going to just full steam ahead and talk about it? And so this is where we stand, we know a lot of you are with us, let's go, let's get on this train together, you know, and so

0:12:05 Lydia: Well, with Patriot Mobile, we were able to talk

0:12:07 Thomas: Let

0:12:51 Clip: Jason and I just decided from that point on, like, this is what we're doing. I think we live in a country where a lot times, you know, if you're a Christian, you're made to feel like that's a bad thing, which is just not the way either one of us was raised, it's not how we feel, and you know, we're in a unique situation to where, you know, a lot of things we do are kind of under the microscope as a couple and as individuals, and, uh, I don't know, I just feel like when you're in the situation we're in, you kind of have this obligation to speak out when you hear, you know, hear and see things that just don't seem right, and, um, I'll say the best, you know, it's, yeah, I think, and you know, for us it's just been kind of being unapologetic about our beliefs and how we feel, it's like, you can think we're crazy, you don't have to agree with it, that's fine, but this is how we feeling, we're not gonna, you know, tell us any different, so that's right, and I think we all appreciate, particularly when you released your song Try That in a Small Town, I think that gave a

0:12:52 Lydia: About specifically what? What?

0:13:03 Lydia: Oh, wah, wah.

0:13:54 Thomas: Love racism, woo, finally.

0:13:55 Lydia: Yeah.

0:13:57 Clip: Lot of people courage, right, and there's a lot who just felt like, finally, we've got somebody who's willing to risk their career, because you risked a lot to do that. Oh, yeah, like I said, I mean, I think you, you know, we live in a culture where if, you know, somebody doesn't like, you know, or they read something the wrong way, or maybe don't necessarily agree with what you say or do, you know, we live in the culture where they go out and just try to tear everything down, make things about something completely different just to tear this down, something they don't agree with, or maybe they don' see out of town. And, you now, I just think that, like, the American people and country music fans are a lot smarter than that. I think they knew what I was saying.

0:14:03 Thomas: They're not

0:14:40 Clip: I think everybody was kind of tired of what was going on at the time, and I just felt like it was something that needed to be said, and the song kind of spoke for itself. I mean, it's one of the biggest songs I've ever had. Well,

0:14:52 Thomas: I, I watched that and I was like, oh, was it a case of, were people like overreacting, whatever, and just like, refreshing on that, um, just looking at a New York Times article from July 2023, Country Music Television has pulled a music video for the song Try That in a Small Town by the country music superstar Jason Aldean, which was filmed at the site of a lynching amid accusations that its lyrics and message are offensive. The video, released on Friday, was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, a site known for the 1927 mob lynching of Henry Chote, an 18 year old Black man, and is interspersed with violent news footage, including protests. An American flag is draped between the building's central pillars, while Aldean's, guitar strumming a guitar, lists what he imagines is big city behavior that would not be well received in a small town, like carjack an old lady, cuss out a cop, stomp on the flag.

0:15:45 Lydia: Wow.

0:15:45 Thomas: Uh, yeah, when I was listening to them, I, there's a part of me that's like, oh, was it like misinterpreted, and then you look at that and you're like, I don't know, man, his, and in the article he's quoted, and it's like, there's not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it, it's like, yeah, but okay, I. he's dumb, or he, you know, is lying, I don't really think, like, I think it's obvious what what it is, or it could be the kind of thing where, again, these these folks who are racists in this way, don't I think they think, as long as they don't explicitly say racist stuff, but they're making points that are definitely racist, then they're not being racist, I think that actually believe that a lot of the time.

0:16:00 Lydia: Yeah, which is crazy to me, like, allusions to it within your lyrics, and then doubling down on those allusions, to it via the visuals in your music video, like those that, are deliberate choices at that point,

0:16:34 Thomas: Yeah. Like, when you read that, it's like, was there some other independent reason you'd have it in front of a courthouse? Is that a big like country music or music video spot?

0:16:43 Lydia: Is there something really, like, special about that building, like architecturally, that speaks to you? Yeah.

0:16:46 Thomas: Yeah. Why? Yeah. It's very plausible to me. And not only that, I love how they always, everybody's always victims, they're perpetual victims. The song went to like fucking number one because all the racists were like, "Oh, you're offended by it," so now I have to like it even more. Which is their entire personality, uh, it's exhausting. And so they talk about how, how did you guys deal with that and all that, and they do talk about like their family and him touring. He's like, not, I'm, I don't like being away more than two weeks, so I only do tours there two weeks, okay?" That's some kind of nice family stuff, I guess, whatever. Then we kind of get to this point here.

0:17:01 Lydia: Yep, Yep, yeah,

0:17:19 Clip: But yeah, that's kind of our game plan. Well, let's talk about your tour because I feel like we were living around the schedule with Brittany. So Patriot Mobile was honored to sponsor the full-throttle tour, and it was awesome. I could watch it every single time.

0:17:31 Thomas: Yeah,

0:17:39 Clip: But explain why you were willing to sponsor, or I guess to team up with us, to partner us. Why, you know, of all the companies, Patriot mobile was blessed, basically, to be your sponsor. Well, a lot of companies, I don't think, like me anymore.

0:17:56 Clip: We love you. No, I think that's one thing in my career over the years is that I don't want to align myself with somebody just for a paycheck or for whatever. It's like if I partner up with somebody, I truly want to be invested in what they stand for, if it makes sense to me. I just feel like people can read through those things.

0:18:21 Thomas: So then it's so funny to be like, "Oh, so this entire thing is Patriot Mobile commercial who also sponsored this tour," and so that's why they're out here, it's it's like an infomercial, you know, it's they're doing like, what it, QVC or whatever, they're like doing it's yeah, it's almost like the shopping network thing where they have the people talk, you know what I mean, like it, because for a second I was like, "Oh, they're just kind of having these country music people talk," or whatever, and like, "Oh no, the whole thing is like a sponsorship. Coursership."

0:18:31 Lydia: Yeah, yeah, QBC is one of them yeah, and it's not the fun ones Yeah, about why you should sign on to this mobile service, and it is like, not even the fun ones, like, the, this, you know, CD compilations that I, I would love listening to in the middle of the night, like they are trying to sell you have I told you lately. Yeah, it's so, God, good. There's like, I could sing those from memory. Anyway, if this happened in the middle of night on my TV, I would not be able to sleep again. I'd be a nightmare. So no thanks.

0:18:55 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I only like it when Ryan and Colin do it.

0:19:19 Thomas: And then they start talking about this here. This might seem irrelevant, but it'll come back a little later, so I'm going play it.

0:19:29 Clip: Might be a great golfer. I've golfed with him. I'm not a great gopher. I feel like you're dialing me out right now for all these people, man. You know that's not true. He was over at a different area, and I was in one area, and Brittany came, too. We let you play through, right? And she was like, her and her foursome, they got out there, and Brittany goes, yeah, I'm not very good. And she hit a shot that just went whoosh up here and landed right in front of the green. And was like oh, that's beginner's luck. And that is that, for sure. Sir, I am athletic.

0:20:06 Clip: No, you could win a car at this hole. So I was like, oh, I'm going to get that thing. I knew. She wasn't going win the car. That's she had to say. So I really put my all into it. No, that was actually, it was luck. I don't know what I'm doing at all. Yeah, I barely made it past the ladies' tees.

0:20:21 Thomas: Yeah.

0:20:21 Clip: I

0:20:21 Thomas: Delightful golf. Relatable, rich golf junket talk.

0:20:26 Lydia: I do relate to her defensiveness as both of the men on that stage are Dismissing it as beginner's luck. Even if it was, like, I do relate that defensiveness. Like, how freaking can dare you, like, I get to say that about myself. Yeah.

0:20:29 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. The casual sexism at this place is just off the charts. Like, I- I think he was joking because he said he wasn't good, maybe, and you could hope it's self-deprecating thing, but yeah, I don't know, it's like, what do you mean, beginner's, like, what, it's so weird, like they just fall into these old-fashioned roles so easily. They love it. I- I don't know why. I don't think she loves it, but that's what she signed up for. And then, let's, oh, it pretty much goes right through, so we can hear this awkwardness before we get to the thing.

0:20:51 Lydia: What

0:21:05 Clip: You know, there's a big game tonight, right? Yeah. I know. I don't think we're famous. She graduated from Alabama.

0:21:13 Clip: So, well, you got one thing. I have one thing to say to you. I have one word.

0:21:16 Thomas: Some sort of game.

0:21:18 Clip: Boomer. That's fine. That's right. It's be a long night.

0:21:20 Thomas: Boomer? I don'' know. Is that the name of a quarterback? I don '' know, okay, so here we go.

0:21:26 Clip: So going back, I guess, a little bit towards business. Why did you choose to sponsor Patriot Mobile? What particular cause or what did you notice that? Well, the philanthropy that you guys do. We have a charity that we do every year with the Sentinel Foundation, and it raises so much money for child trafficking. The amount of children we save per year is unbelievable. Yeah, we actually don't speak on it a ton. I mean, socials occasionally, but we raised well over a million dollars this year, and there's just no telling how many kids that's going to save. But the fact that you guys came on board and helped us with that and sponsored and just everything you guys stand for, family, your conservative feelings, your morals, everything about you guys is what we stand for. So we couldn't be more proud to work with you. Thank

0:21:31 Lydia: Wife, that's the coo, she's like guys yeah,

0:22:10 Thomas: So yeah, Sentinel Foundation. I was like, okay. Let me just check up on this. Like, a bunch of money for kids?

0:22:12 Lydia: Thank you, because that's exactly what I want to do too. Yeah,

0:22:17 Thomas: Is he going to save? Like what, what, how, what is happening? Uh. So I do some research on the Sentinel Foundation and God, now I don't know where to begin. I don't know where, I don't know where to start here. Cause it's, man, there's a lot going on here.

0:22:38 Thomas: I watched a lot of other videos, uh, some interviews. First off, I just, you know, I'm checking out their website then I went and, you know, and looking up their, uh, financials and everything to try to see what's going on. Raised, she said they raised a million dollars like on that thing. And turns out I don't think it was entirely clear there, but the golf thing was that actually. So each year they do, at Least I believe it was, or it's a a coincidence because each year the the Sentinel Foundation does like a charity golf thing to raise a bunch of money and so I it could be coincidence but I'm pretty sure that was what they're talking about um so I just think that's interesting um and so I'm like Sentinel Foundation, what is this? I okay so let, I want, let's just, let's just poke around, I just want you, maybe maybe maybe I'll let you poke around, I'm gonna, I'm uh, here, here, I'll just send you the link.

0:22:56 Lydia: Oh, that's like a charity I'm on their website.

0:23:22 Thomas: Oh, you are. Okay. Go to the website and just poke around like you might if you were you, or not you, if you're somebody just checking it out. What's the about page?

0:23:23 Lydia: Yep. Uh-uh.

0:23:32 Thomas: What's going on?

0:23:32 Lydia: Well, yeah, so normally what I would do is I would want to know who are like our key folks that are affiliated with this. So, well, I look at about and I don't see anywhere listed about like a board of directors or anything, that's like easily clickable. However, I do see when I click on about Sentinel operations, um, a banner image of people in like military garb and guns. So that's really interesting. Um, and then I scroll down and there's the "who we are" and all of their faces are blurred out sitting around eating food at a restaurant.

0:23:37 Thomas: That's a good one too, Yeah, it's a weird choice.

0:24:08 Lydia: And so I guess they're trying to, to them sort of secretive, because it seems like they go out and like are do like citizens arrests or something like that's what this is.

0:24:19 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, this is an organization that you're being told is saving untold numbers numbers of children like what's from what what's happening

0:24:25 Lydia: And it's just a bunch of guys with blurred out faces. So that's also a little concerning.

0:24:30 Thomas: So what yeah why don't you read their mission okay

0:24:34 Lydia: Yes. OK. OK, the mission statement Sentinel Foundation was founded with one goal in mind to end underage children being exploited around the world. While this cause isn't new, our method to achieve it is. We have the personnel, technology, the law enforcement support and more importantly, the perseverance to see it through. Because no one else really cares that much about ending child trafficking. The Sentinel Foundation operations team focuses on targeting elusive child traffickers that use highly skilled methods to find and exploit their victims. Children in underdeveloped and under-resourced countries have virtually no defense against these networks. OK, so these are international efforts that they're doing, I guess. And they've hyperlinked targeting ellusive child traffippers.

0:25:16 Thomas: Yeah that's what I was thinking

0:25:20 Lydia: Should I click on that?

0:25:20 Thomas: We should click yeah why not why don t we and and then I'm expecting like again if if this is a thing where it's like saving untold numbers of children and the hyperlink is the words are literally targeting elusive child traffickers I'm like oh this should be like news release we got this guy

0:25:22 Lydia: All right.

0:25:36 Lydia: No, it just says we target the traffickers.

0:25:37 Thomas: Right hmm okay yeah why don't you why don't read this page

0:25:42 Lydia: Okay. We combine special operations methodology with emerging technology to target criminal traffickers, disrupt networks, and rescue victims. We utilize the tactics, techniques, and procedures, TTPs, developed by the special operations community and the deployment of some of the most advanced commercial technology available. With these tools, our counter trafficking capabilities enhance the efforts by governments, law enforcement, and NGOs around around the world. What what was

0:26:07 Thomas: It's not yeah yeah I'm trying still I'm so try at this point I'm what do they do I don't like what is happening and then you can scroll down I

0:26:15 Lydia: The point of hyperlinking that like that that could just live on your about page also this is the same whatever

0:26:17 Thomas: Know it's it yeah it it does kind of but yeah but because Because there's a little more if you scroll down.

0:26:24 Lydia: Leverage all tools at our disposal is is on top of a photo of a guy with yeah some sort of shotgun and it says instructor

0:26:27 Thomas: A guy with a shotgun, I think. All right. Yeah, it's very military, very, like, tactical, whatever. Like, that's just the whole site is that theme.

0:26:38 Lydia: Support and train LEOs we provide training for both law enforcement officers and government forces around around the world.

0:26:40 Thomas: Hmm. Interesting.

0:26:46 Lydia: Collaborative efforts between law enforcement organizations, Sentinel, and local governments make a significant impact towards eradicating child exploitation and trafficking. Well, I hear that and I'm like, ooh, sector, let me FOIA, see if I can get some contracts. That's what Lydia would have done.

0:26:54 Thomas: Huh. Okay. Yeah. That next step, maybe.

0:27:03 Lydia: Yeah. And then they instill fear in those who exploit the vulnerable.

0:27:09 Thomas: Don't you actually, you should read that. The first sentence, especially, is a little important.

0:27:14 Lydia: Sentinel Foundation by design conducts our counter-trafficking operations in the shadows and the background.

0:27:20 Thomas: Yeah. Interesting. Keep reading.

0:27:22 Lydia: Okay. You will not see us highlight the details of our impact online or in the media. Convenient, really convenient for a 501c3. Wow.

0:27:25 Thomas: Well, that's convenient. Yeah, yeah.

0:27:30 Lydia: Everything our team does is in support of someone else. And we do not seek the recognition for that work, but you seek money, but you seek money, this approach allows us the trust and ability to work on some of the world's most challenging problems, but you won't prove it? Okay.

0:27:36 Thomas: Yeah, well, they're just supporting other people. Oh, interesting. That kind of does it for that page. Let's see if there's anything else here. What's interesting is like I'm trying to track down like my first thought. And obviously, I want to always keep my mind open. But my first thoughts, because I'm kind of a skeptical person, was like, this seems like I could have made this website. You know, like, could I make this website and get millions of dollars? Like, could I just be like, yeah, well, the things I do, you don't know them. They're from Canada, but they're awesome. Like, you know, essentially, so far it's like, well, we're in the shadows. We don't you know we don't want credit for anything we do. But I was looking around. I like, there's got to be something. Is there something? And they do have a few things they point to.

0:28:08 Lydia: And then use Chat GPT for the copy yeah, Totally.

0:28:32 Lydia: They have like the training section, right?

0:28:33 Thomas: Kind of. Yeah. But I mean, that also is like, we offer training. You know, it's like, OK, I don't doubt that that's thing they probably do. Um, if I go to... let... I... let they have to use all the terminology. That's like, so if you go to news and then like articles or something, it's like, Q3 2025 sit rep report now available, which is like, isn't that like situation report or something? I can't, it's something like military term, I think, sit rep?

0:28:40 Lydia: Oh. Yeah.

0:29:00 Thomas: The Sentinel SITREP. So I was like, oh, maybe that'll tell us what's going on here. So we're to look at that SITREP. We get a, a map that has a bunch of locations. It's like, Oh, okay. They're working in the United States, El Salvador, Columbia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, Ukraine, Uganda, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Tajikistan. Oh, that's a random one. Oh okay. Cause it's near or Afghanistan, you and Uganda, okay, that's just a map though, they don't, there's nothing that goes with it this is these are places on a map um so there is this one thing they point to here with peru I guess we could read that impact

0:29:00 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm on it, too.

0:29:17 Lydia: Mm hmm. Mm-hmm? You

0:29:33 Thomas: Delivered peru

0:29:33 Lydia: Mean this image where they've put a push pin on top of Peru to make it very, very clear?

0:29:38 Thomas: We've installed a giant push pin on peru and it's made all the child traffickers quiver in their boots and there's the pathos I think you could maybe read the impact delivered part

0:29:50 Lydia: This mission marked the official launch of Sentinel Foundation's operational expansion into South America. Our team executed the MOU with Peruvian law enforcement leaders and delivered training in OSINT, O-S-I-N-T, case building, surveillance techniques, and drone-based reconnaissance. The training established a shared tactical workflow to support future rescues. Additionally, our clinical director assessed aftercare infrastructure to can be safely supported post-rescue. Okay, and then some highlights and outcomes.

0:29:56 Thomas: What's their expansion

0:30:24 Lydia: Memorandum of Understanding.

0:30:22 Thomas: Mou like is that what it is executed the memory I wasn't sure if there's a different I like I know that one but I wasn't sure if there was like a different military thing THAT'S THAT BUT OKAY ALL RIGHT COOL YOU GOT A MEMO OF UNDERSTANDING WITH SOME PEOPLE ALL right. Right. They're training. Like, it's all so like, OK, what are you doing? Like conducted multi-day intelligence and surveillance training outcomes.

0:30:26 Lydia: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, no, I think it's just, you know, civil service. Mm-hm. Listen. Yeah, so here are their outcomes, okay? Yeah. Operational presence in Peru established. Like, we got off the plane. Okay.

0:30:48 Thomas: Yeah, we were there. Yeah. OK.

0:30:55 Lydia: Very cool outcome. Partner agencies are now equipped to support joint field operations.

0:31:00 Thomas: OK, they're ready. They're they're all that essentially just means they're in contact with somebody there.

0:31:03 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. Aftercare partners identified and prepared for post-rescue support.

0:31:06 Thomas: Okay. Sorry. Sorry, just aftercare in this context of like BDSM. After we did some real crazy stuff together, aftercare partners, everybody, we use the aftercare buddy system.

0:31:14 Lydia: I know, sex. It's cuddles.

0:31:26 Lydia: Yep.

0:31:28 Thomas: Identify your aftercare partner.

0:31:29 Lydia: And prepare and prepare.

0:31:31 Thomas: Prepare, prepare. I love how their outcomes and they're all like prepared.

0:31:35 Lydia: We're getting ready.

0:31:36 Thomas: Yeah.

0:31:36 Lydia: Ready.

0:31:36 Thomas: What's the last one?

0:31:37 Lydia: Foundation laid for coordinated rescue mission deployment in Q4 plus.

0:31:40 Thomas: Foundation late. Your Q4 plus,

0:31:44 Lydia: Plus. So

0:31:44 Thomas: You know, we don't have the Q4 report, even though we're in Q1. I need my sit rep. I needs my Q4 sit rep, yeah.

0:31:46 Lydia: Sometime after Q4. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

0:31:53 Thomas: You know, they're still working on that. There's just so much to talk about, I'm sure. Okay. So that's nothing. We got Uganda. Okay, that could be something going on there.

0:31:59 Lydia: Yeah, it's almost literally identical to the key highlights, by the way, when that I'm looking at the outcomes that it's right next to the key highlights, they're almost identical. So silly.

0:32:04 Thomas: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep. And why don't you just check out the bullet points for Uganda? Let's see if they, it

0:32:15 Lydia: Oh is it going to be the same thing? We got off the plane

0:32:17 Thomas: Might be, but they might have put it in a different order.

0:32:21 Lydia: Okay, uh, do you want key highlights or outcomes?

0:32:23 Thomas: I mean, they're kind of the same, aren't they?

0:32:25 Lydia: Um, okay, I'll start with key highlights.

0:32:26 Thomas: Wait, hold on. Yeah, because there is something there.

0:32:27 Lydia: Yeah. Multi-region rescue missions executed.

0:32:31 Thomas: Okay. Rescue missions executed. That sounds like something. Maybe they did something.

0:32:36 Lydia: Coordinated operations with Okoa plus special police, I guess, a location in Uganda.

0:32:43 Thomas: Probably. I don't know.

0:32:44 Lydia: Strengthened intelligence and communications network.

0:32:46 Thomas: Okay. Yeah. It's all resume stuff.

0:32:48 Lydia: Identified operational efficiency refinements. Oh my God.

0:32:51 Thomas: This is when you had a do nothing job and you have to put it on your resume and be like, what did I do at this job? Well, I identified operational efficiency refinements for sure.

0:33:04 Lydia: A lot of this is just like bullshitty.

0:33:05 Thomas: Now that was just a highlight. Now, outcome if section of my resume.

0:33:08 Lydia: Let's talk your outcomes.

0:33:09 Thomas: Yeah. You're my, you're my.

0:33:09 Lydia: What did you actually accomplish?

0:33:11 Thomas: Well, uh, I improved multi-agency coordination. That was a big thing that I did in Uganda at my time at Uganda Inc. Uh, I expanded actionable intelligence pipeline. It wasn't very small before it was like a smaller pipeline. And then I was like, we should expand that pipeline, get get a little bigger. And so we made a bigger pipeline. You know, I reduced re future.

0:33:15 Lydia: All right. Ugandic, action Oh my God. Yeah.

0:33:33 Thomas: I reduced future deployment inefficiencies. What? So once again, it's all like, is there a thing? Like, again, I'm very skeptical, but I'm like, okay. I always, as I said on the other show, I don't want to be wrong. So I'm like, maybe I'll be wrong, maybe the next page will be, and we save 50 kids from a fucking dungeon or something, you know, it could be something awful, like maybe they're doing, but it's always like, that's amazing language, reduced future deployment inefficiencies. I me, when I was writing my resume, I was tired of writing prepared over and over, prepared, we prepared, so I'm like, well, I Like you, the hiring person, asked like, is there anything that's not like preparation-based? And I'm glad you asked.

0:33:37 Lydia: Right, Yeah, Absolutely. Yeah.

0:34:18 Thomas: I also reduced future deployment inefficiencies.

0:34:23 Lydia: Yeah, honestly, it's like I look at this and I just have more questions. I don't feel like this is giving me confidence in this organization and me wanting to donate to it.

0:34:27 Thomas: Yeah. I'm a perfectionist and I care too much are my main weaknesses. And also, I reinforced partner field relationships, which I think was exactly identical to the other one, or it's, or it maybe is a little bit different language.

0:34:35 Lydia: Yeah, Yeah, Intelligence and communications network. Yeah.

0:34:48 Thomas: Okay, a little but different.

0:34:49 Lydia: Oh, well, here you go, because the key highlight, identified operational efficiency refinements, and then the outcome is reduced future deployment inefficiencies. So, you know, they go hand in hand. Get a bullet point on each side now.

0:34:59 Thomas: Oh, Boy, but it does say joint rescue operations were conducted. The mission strengthened operational trust and revealed improvements to streamline future deployments. So, like, I would think if they had, like, and we rescued a kid, they'd have, like, a picture or something, not you know, maybe blurred out, but

0:35:17 Lydia: That's the thing, it's don't you, like, don't have to go that direction. Like, you can give us numbers without compromising anybody's safety. You can gives us some sort of details. You know, like, a particular mission was, uh, tackled and resulted in bringing X number of children, or a significant number of kids. You could, like, even keep that vague. I don't know. Like, there's a way to find in the middle.

0:35:18 Thomas: Yeah.

0:35:40 Thomas: A lot you could do. There's a lot you could

0:35:41 Lydia: I'm not asking for like names, date of births or anything like that.

0:35:42 Thomas: Do. Um, Let's see, well, we can keep, going through it. Is It?

0:35:47 Lydia: Yeah, this one's a little more specific. Well, OK. Under key highlights, 65 frontline personnel trained. We have a number.

0:35:54 Thomas: All right. Trainings.

0:35:55 Lydia: We have a member.

0:35:55 Thomas: Yeah. Well, OK. So they're doing trainings and like and to be clear, I doubt you could call this. And I'm not like accusing anyone of like fraud per se. I don't, I doubt you could say this is fraud because they are, providing trainings. No, it's not like they're a fictional fake, organization. I'm Not Saying That or anything.

0:35:58 Lydia: Yes.

0:36:10 Lydia: It specifically says underneath this section, too, that this fulfilled formal MOU requirements specific to the training, the 65 responders. So these are, related to deliverables that whatever groups they're working with are expecting from them. So as far as they say.

0:36:25 Thomas: Mean, isn't that just a fancy way of saying, well, we contacted some people and said we could train you. And they're like, all right. And then they paid us to train them on this.

0:36:34 Lydia: I mean, yeah, I guess I guess you would hope that the MOU would include additional stuff and not just this training.

0:36:39 Thomas: Yeah. And so we have a contract of some kind. Yeah. Yeah.

0:36:43 Lydia: But yeah, that like that's part of training.

0:36:44 Thomas: So unified rescue plus evidence handling procedures introduced. Oh, that's High level Ugandan leadership participation. All right. Standardized multi-agency child rescue framework in place, okay? I keep thinking that's going to be a past tense verb. Because like key outcomes, well, I. Standardized multi agency child rescue framework in place. Oh, wait, it's just saying like there is now a standardized multi It is just. Yeah, increased local leadership capability. Yeah, now I don't know. Does that mean there's an increased local leadership capability or does that mean that we did it?

0:37:02 Lydia: They Yeah. They go back and forth. Is the thing? Yeah, I don't know. Or they are responsible

0:37:23 Thomas: Yeah.

0:37:23 Lydia: For it? Yeah.

0:37:24 Thomas: Sustainable daily protection capacity strengthened. What?

0:37:29 Lydia: Daily.

0:37:30 Thomas: I mean, okay.

0:37:30 Lydia: Protection. Capacity.

0:37:31 Thomas: MOU training summit Uganda. Okay. Train, train, train. We won't go through all of this, but train, training, training. This is pretty much identical.

0:37:37 Lydia: You've already and they've already talked about the 65 responders that they've trained, like you've already claimed it on the previous page.

0:37:40 Thomas: Yep. Yep. Yep. And they're like, if we move more toward the border of another country, we can call it Uganda, something else. GPS vehicle tracker installed? Huh? Oh, track. So does that mean like, all right, here?

0:37:46 Lydia: Oh, give us your cars.

0:37:56 Thomas: No, here's here's the brain of it. And you can put these GPS trackers on suspect vehicles, maybe. Let's see. Sentinel conducted intelligence gathering surveillance on a suspected trafficking network. OK, placing a GPS. Oh, I'm wrong. Yeah. Okay. So it sounds like they actually maybe did something. Placing a GPS tracker on a vehicle and monitoring movement between multiple districts. The goal was to map the network thoroughly before interdiction to ensure permanent disruption rather than isolated arrests. Oh, yeah. Okay, doing reconnaissance. All right.

0:38:27 Lydia: Well, here we go down at the bottom here, though, surveillance initiated on a trafficking ring linked to the kidnapping of 10 children, but I don't know if they saved them. Hopefully.

0:38:34 Thomas: Okay? Okay. Yeah. I mean, who knows? GPS tracking and network mapping were executed. And that's thing is like, because they're working with the law enforcement agencies. I still think there was a news article that was like local police, rescue 10 children from thing, I'm positive that they could publish that or link to it or whatever. Like they could show a picture, like if it hasn't happened, they're like, oh, we don't, you know, we don't want to reveal information because the suspects will know that they're being tracked. Sure, okay.

0:38:55 Lydia: Right. Right. Yeah.

0:39:07 Thomas: But like if anything's ever happened, you would think they'd be able to point to the press release that, because the police do that, they put out the release, or or the local press will cover when something happens like that. So I'm sure they could point to it if it was there. Oh, wait, hold on, hold on, on the next page there might be something here.

0:39:22 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, it is curious because, I mean, we haven't seen anything. Uh-huh. Uh‑huh.

0:39:29 Thomas: Impact delivered, Operation Little Ones Retribution, parentheses ongoing, okay.

0:39:33 Lydia: Ongoing. And then just bold because it catches my eye, child rapist is successfully arrested. So,

0:39:39 Thomas: Okay, serial predators responsible for major sexual exploitation offenses against minors in central and southern Uganda. Sentinel supported the arrest, arrest of a high-risk offender while gathering evidence on additional perpetrators connected to to broader exploitation networks. All right, says they located and arrested. Oh, are they allowed to operate as like a paramilitary or a para police? Is there a word for that? They're like a, you know what I mean, like, how did they arrest people

0:40:04 Lydia: I've got to think that they have to be, like in coordination with the local law enforcement, like that they support the arrest or something. I don't think that they're just going up by themselves

0:40:15 Thomas: It says arrested arrest executed in in cooperation with special police, victim slash witness case documentation supported, high harm predator permanently neutralized, additional prosecutions in progress, network dismantling ongoing. Okay. It sounds like something's happening there. All right. So got millions of dollars to go sit in and maybe give some pointers while while local police do a thing. Like it's that, like, that might all be true, and I'm, I'm sure it is, but like you need this organization to do that, like, is it, is it the best use of millions of dollars, and could you really say who knows how many kids, countless kids, that these million dollars are going to save? Because so far we've got like one in this entire quarter and there's a bunch of trainings. And again, yeah, it's not like there's not these horrible criminals, but it's just, it's just weird. There's something about this that, that I'm like, this is, it feels like something that would really appeal to these people, that. Remember that movie a year or two ago that was like

0:40:19 Lydia: Yeah Yeah. Oh, Yeah. Sound

0:41:13 Thomas: The border thing that was like, that Sound of Freedom? Yeah, like that kind of thing, you know, and I'm just like, what's this? It's just a little this is a lot of words that don't say much.

0:41:15 Lydia: Of freedom? Well, yeah, but and but then people get to cosplay as you, these white savior military folk.

0:41:26 Thomas: Yeah. And then Impact Delivered Oak and Smoke. Look at that one. Why don't tell me what that looks like? Because to me, there's a nice picture of some men in suits with like drinks. So it sounds like. Like, yeah, so they have a nice party and spend a bunch of money on stuff.

0:41:39 Lydia: Yes. Uh, designed for trust building and mission alignment with established advocates and emerging donors. Oh, so it's their party, private donor relationship building event.

0:41:50 Thomas: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Ohio range day. They, social media, and maybe shot at a gun range. All right. There is a thing that, so I don't know if it was in this quarter, but, biggest the thing that I saw that they did, and this is, you know, this is good. Could, I think it's again, I don't know that it's going to be the most efficient use of money, but they helped with some disaster rescue, which is, it's nothing to do with sex abuse or human trafficking, so I just want to note that. But like it is cool that they did that.

0:41:50 Lydia: Okay.

0:42:17 Lydia: That's important work.

0:42:19 Thomas: Crisis response, and and it's funny, they have a whole tab on their website for it, on that, and then there's only one thing, and it's Western North Carolina.

0:42:27 Lydia: Yeah, I saw that. I was confused by that.

0:42:29 Thomas: They were on site less than a week after the storm impacted North Carolina in late September, 2024. Organizing efforts and taking action along other NGOs, we have coordinated and provided rescues, road and tree clearing, supply drops, delivery and distribution, bridge building, and more. We will continue to support those was impacted by Hurricane Helene. All right. So, I mean, that's cool. Thought there was another one. There's a place where they also say they tried to help. And um, it might be because this is a little older, I think I saw it in an older tax document, that they helped rescue people from Afghanistan when we left Afghanstan.

That's interesting, like I wonder, you know, talk about FOIA, like maybe we could there's something to FOIA there, because I mean, again, I don't doubt that, like, it seems like they, they are military guys and they're connected to the military, and maybe they, you know, I just, just seems like weird, like, what would they have done, how would that, you know, it just, it's a bizarre thing, so and so then I, um, wanted to check out more because at this point do see that they're doing some stuff, but it's like it feels weird, and so I wanted to track down more, and so I found an a long interview with someone named Matt Murphy, and it says President of Sentinel Foundation. This is from July 25th, 2023. Now, what's weird about that? What's weird about that is when I go to tax documents, and I look at 2022, 2022, just in case, um, and I look at key employees, no, no Matt person there, uh, the president is listed as Glenn Devitt. That's

0:42:45 Lydia: Yeah.

0:43:07 Lydia: Matt Yeah,

0:44:01 Thomas: Weird, okay, 2023, now the president is listed as Andrew Gunther.

0:44:06 Lydia: And that's who was in the uh, the Sentinel report thingy that we, we were just looking at.

0:44:10 Thomas: Yeah, Okay, 2024, maybe 2024, there isn't a president and none of the people, but there's, there's about 10 names in each of these years. None of them are Matt Murphy, which is like, I, I think I know what's going on maybe, but I'll, uh, I'll get to that later, but it's just weird. I was like, okay, he's not even listed in any of this stuff, but he is the president. And it's not like he is affiliated with them, obviously, like he's in there, stuff, But it just, that was just another weird thing where I'm like, how is he the president? But he's Not even listed on the tax documents. It doesn't seem right. So that's a, that's But I watched this long interview description says President of Sentinel Foundation. Isn't that weird?

0:44:34 Lydia: Right. Yeah.

0:44:49 Thomas: And so I think we'll take an episode break because this video has got some stuff, man. And this is, This is a, I had to, I was like, sorry, need to pause day two of AmFest to watch two hours of this guy. And it's so interesting. So next time on Where There's Woke, this real? Like what? What's going on with this Sentinel Foundation? Foundation, uh, how bullshit is this?

0:45:17 Thomas: On, we'll find We'll listen to this interview, a bit got a lot of clips, and we'll, we'll be the judge of that. So thanks for listening so much, uh, everybody, and thanks for supporting, and uh, next time, we're gonna and delve more into the Sentinel Foundation and other organizations.

0:44:50 Lydia: Oh boy. Yeah, okay. Nice.

0:45:59 Thomas: Ah, man. I got my mind on Vivaldi, I got Vivalli on my mind.

0:46:03 Lydia: Exactly. Jay-Z knew what was up. I don't think that's Jay-Z. Oh, my God.

0:46:06 Thomas: No idea.

0:46:07 Lydia: Cut it all. Jesus Christ.

0:46:09 Thomas: Not this again. Yeah, it's Vivaldi. It's Vivaldi.

0:46:13 Lydia: No.

0:46:14 Thomas: No, I'm just kidding. Instead of Jay-Z, like...

0:46:15 Lydia: Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh boy.

0:46:19 Thomas: Rep. I needs my Q4 sit rep,