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. Well, you know, I have Vivaldi on my mind. So, yeah. Yes. Consideration of career changes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, yeah that sounds right. Mm, mm, mm. Right. Yeah mm-hm. Tucker Carlson. Yeah Mm-hm, yeah

0:00:48 Thomas: Whoa, what's going on here? Okay, well, so here's the deal. Here's the deal. When I originally started covering this, there's so much talking about AmericaFest with three K's. There's so, there was so much. And then I got really excited about this thing that I want to tell you all about. And of course I was like, all right, we'll just do this in order. And then after we finally caught up and finished that last one, we got out after some hours of classical music research and, you know, getting getting our heads straight on that. Yeah, 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. The theme of day two is it's grift day. I mean, every day is grift day. But this is like, I mean, these people are pretty savvy event planners. I remember, God, I think it was 2016. 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 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 all felt like, yeah, no, that's about right. It's like we've got a party that probably has people who knows how 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 build out a network of fellow white Christian nationalists, essentially. And they've got this thing I've talked about already, but the tech is insane. So all 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. Ben Shapiro and what's his name? And one day one. Tucker Carlson, like that's pretty big. They weren't super heavy on the grift. If 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, this is cell phones, but for conservatives, this

0:03:13 Lydia: Yeah. You don't want to lead off with that, right? Because that's going to turn everybody

0:03:13 Thomas: Is a fucking watermelons, but for conservative, it's just everything is, but for conservative. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

0:03:21 Lydia: 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. Yeah.

0:03:28 Thomas: I'm sure the sponsors would be bargaining for their time slots as well.

0:03:32 Lydia: Mm-hmm. Mm-huh. Yep. Mm hmm. As like a reminder. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.

0:03:32 Thomas: So it's like a good, you know, it just makes sense. Like how they did it. It sucks to see that they're kind of savvy and have gotten better at a lot of this stuff. And this organization I mean it's just so it's so full of money now so they've probably got just really experienced event planners and tech people and stuff which is uh it sucks no one should work for them they should all quit but there's a lot of Christians in this country that's the thing is watching this 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 a a Christian, huh? Like, 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 every day I want to come across a random sampling of America. Just like, I just want to see it. Yeah. Just to give me, like I want to get my, 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 they asked like, what percentage of the democratic party is gay. And they're like, 90, 95%. What are you talking about? Yeah. What percentage is trans?

0:04:32 Lydia: Yeah. Right. Anyone with any power. Right, right. No, but they do have a difference of opinion on

0:04:36 Thomas: 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 percentage of Republicans are rich? And we estimate way too high on that, which is like it's just funny because like that is wrong. But also it's like, well, that's who controls the party. And like that's whose interests are are represented, whereas their thing about us is a fake thing where everyone's gay. Our party isn't controlled by like big trans. They just pretend it is. 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. So here I am watching this day two. There's all kinds of funny like sponsor stuff I want to talk about. There're all kinds. I mean, 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 they do have like yeah they have a libertarian versus some god-awful

0:05:30 Lydia: Their side, too, on that. Yeah. Oh, right, mm-hmm, mm. Yeah, I don't think we did it, yeah. Yeah and

0:05:33 Thomas: 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 okay so they do a debate and it's kind of funny to see it's fun to see the tolerance for debate go up when they're virtue signaling about it, and they're like, Charlie loved 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 it kind of ebbs and flows. And then in the middle, right pretty much smack dab in the Middle of Day 2, Jason 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' think we dug too much into that, but, or I didn' anyway. I' don't think we did it for the show 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 just seemed really racist. Who knows? And in the midst of that, they just

0:06:27 Lydia: See what happens to you, yeah, mm, mm mm. Oh wow. Allegedly, allegedly, yeah right. You're not doing

0:06:32 Thomas: Quickly name dropped 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 this isn't, 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 of different organizations. I'm going to focus on one. I don't, I haven't checked all the numbers for these, but something like in the neighborhood of 10 million low tens in terms of like a couple years worth of revenue, that's all going to something that I think is 94% fake. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. I want to emphasize just, you know, just, just think, yeah, in case the fascists take over, like I don't have any non-public information. I'm going to tell you some stuff I've found and give you my impression of it.

0:07:26 Lydia: Like forensic accounting you know like you haven't been hired by a firm to do anything

0:07:28 Thomas: Yeah, I'm doing a little, I've done some light forensic accounting.

0:07:31 Lydia: Yeah yeah but but again it's like based off of public information like you're not deep in their

0:07:33 Thomas: No, just a little bit. Yeah. It's just my, it's my impression.

0:07:36 Lydia: Books yeah right nice vivaldi oh do you think they actually use patriot mobile oh okay oh yeah yeah

0:07:37 Thomas: It's my impression. And 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 Jason Aldean thing and go through it a little bit first, and then we'll get to where they name-dropped this thing, and we'll be on our merry way. So, hey, please support the show, patreon.com/seriouspod. We'll take a break. Get to it. We're fast. We're running out of time. Hurry.

0:08:07 Thomas: Okay, so I do want to play this just to, you know, get the context plus Patriot Mobile. It's a phone with a bald eagle carrying a flag, of course. So you get that ad and 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 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, that's who's sponsoring and sometimes a part of the talk that comes next so that's not just like oh quick commercial like this is they're heavily involved you'll see all right let's skip this music I've had to hear 400 times there's the least charismatic ceo it's a thumb who comes on and talks about this guy it's the thumb slash the thing from like candy land that's like the purple thing what am I thinking of or it's like the they're like this uh like it's like mud or something what is that it's like a child there's just something that's like a formless blob basically this guy is like melting like it looks like his face is melting but he's a thumb so they're gonna introduce some other people who cares but we can hear him do his little uh pitch here wow he's ceo he's really good with phones

0:09:06 Lydia: Yeah. From Candyland. Hmm. A blob. OK. Mm hmm. Mm hm. Biblical voicemail principles.

0:10:19 Lydia: Yeah. But how's your cell coverage? I feel like that's important. Yeah. Oh, they have to. Yeah,

0:10:23 Thomas: Zero applause because everyone is sleeping oh yeah okay Okay. Yeah. It works in heaven really well. Every single sponsor that I've seen is like, and that's why Charlie just fucking love this thing. He just was all about it. It might be true. Cause like, I mean, he also was good at getting money. Like they say that was his main skill was like, that's Bari Weiss too. Like some of these people that is a good skill. I don't mean morally good. It's a skill that helps in this kind of work. Politicians. Yeah, politicians and stuff. 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. We were best friends. Okay. Okay. So then he's going to introduce his wife, who's the COO. And then Brittany. And then I think a bit later, Jason Aldean. I think he comes in a bit late. As I'm scrolling through. So let's skip to that. Yeah.

0:10:43 Lydia: Mm hmm. Yeah and politics. Yeah yeah absolutely. Mm-hmm. OK OK. Well with Patriot Mobile we were were able to talk about specifically what oh wow wow yeah oh okay wow yeah yeah which is crazy to

0:12:08 Thomas: We love racism. Woo! Finally. They're not. Yeah. So I watched that and I was like, oh, was it a case of where people like overreacting, whatever, and just like refreshing on that. 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 Choate, 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 strumming a guitar lists what he imagines as 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 yeah when I was listening to them there's a part of me that's like oh was it like misinterpret and then you look at that and you're like I don't know man 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 either he's dumb or he you know is lying I don t really think like I think it's obvious what it is or it could be be the kind of thing where, again, these folks who are racists in this way, 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. Yeah. Like when you read that, it's like, was there some other independent reason you'd have

0:16:22 Lydia: Me allusions to it within your lyrics and then doubling down on those allusions to it via the visuals in your music video like those are deliberate choices at that point right

0:16:38 Thomas: It in front of a courthouse? Is that a big like country music or music video spot? Yeah. Why?

0:16:40 Lydia: Right is there something really like special about that building like architecturally that speaks to you yeah yep yep yeah yeah yeah uh-huh qbc is one of them yeah and it's not the fun ones

0:16:48 Thomas: Why? Yeah, it's not very plausible to me. And not only that, I love how 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. It's exhausting. And so they talk about how did you guys deal with that and all that. And they do talk about, like. Their family and him touring, and he's like, I don't like being away more than two weeks, so I only do tours that are two weeks. I'm like, okay, that's some kind of nice family stuff, I guess, whatever. Whatever and then we kind of get to this point here yeah so then it's so funny to be like oh so this entire thing is patriot mobile a commercial who also sponsored this tour and so that's why they're out here it's like an infomercial you know it's they're doing qvc or whatever they're like doing it's yeah it's almost like the shopping network network thing where they have the people talk. You know what I mean? Like it's because for a second I was like, oh, they're just kind of having these country music people talk or whatever. And

0:18:48 Lydia: Yeah about why you should sign on to this mobile service and it is like not even the fun

0:18:51 Thomas: Like, Oh no, the whole thing is like a sponsorship. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I only like it when Ryan and

0:18:57 Lydia: Ones like this you know cd compilations that I would love listening to in the middle of the night whenever like they're trying to sell you have I told you lately yeah god it's so good there's like

0:19:05 Thomas: Colin do it. And then they start talking about this here. This might seem irrelevant, but it'll

0:19:08 Lydia: I could sing those from memory anyway if this happened in the middle of the night on my tv I would not be able to sleep again I would be a nightmare so no thanks

0:19:25 Thomas: Come back a little later so I'm gonna play it yeah delightful golf relatable rich golf junket talk yeah yeah yeah the casual sexism at this place is just off the charts like I think

0:20:25 Lydia: I do relate to her defensiveness as both of the men on that stage are dismissing it as beginners even if it was like I do relate to that defensiveness like how freaking dare you like I get to say that about myself yeah yeah what the wife that's the coo she's like guys

0:20:43 Thomas: He was joking because he said he wasn't good maybe and you get a hope it's a self-deprecating thing but yeah I don't know it's like what do you mean beginning like it's so weird like they just fall into these old-fashioned roles so easily they love it I don't know why I don't think she loves it but But that's what she signed up for. And then it pretty much goes right through. So we can hear this awkwardness before we get to the thing. Some sort of game. Boomer. I don't know. Is that the name of a quarterback? I don' t know. Okay. So here we go. Yeah. So yeah. Sentinel Foundation. I was like, okay, let me just check up on this.

0:22:12 Lydia: Yeah thank you because that's exactly what I want to do too yeah yeah uh-oh

0:22:14 Thomas: A bunch of money for kids. How many kids are you going to save? What is happening? So I do some research on the Sentinel Foundation and God, Yeah. 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. I watched a lot of other videos, some interviews. First off, I just, you know, I'm checking out their website and then I went and yeah, I'M looking up their financials and everything to try to see what's going on. She said they raised a million dollars like on that thing. And it 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 coincidence because each year the Sentinel

0:22:57 Lydia: Oh that's like a charity uh-huh I'm on their website yep uh-uh yeah well yeah so normally

0:23:01 Thomas: Foundation does like a charity golf thing to raise a bunch of money. And so it could be coincidence, but I'm pretty sure that was what they're talking about. So I just think that's interesting. And some like Sentinel Foundation, what is this? Okay. So let's just poke around. I just want you, maybe I'll let you poke around here. I'll just send you the link. Oh, you are. Okay, go to the website and just poke around like you might if you were you, or not you, if you were somebody just checking it out. What's the about page? What's going on? That's a good one

0:23:33 Lydia: What I would do is I would want to know who are like our key folks that are affiliated with this

0:23:38 Thomas: Too. Yeah. Yeah, it's a weird choice. Yeah this is an organization that you're being told is saving

0:23:39 Lydia: So 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 a banner image of people in like military garb and guns so that's really interesting 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 and so I guess they're trying to keep them sort of secretive because it seems like they go out and like do like citizens arrests or something like that's what this is yeah

0:24:22 Thomas: Untold numbers of children. Like what's from what? What'S happening? Yeah. So why don't you read

0:24:25 Lydia: Yeah. And it's just a bunch of guys with blurred out faces. So that's also a little concerning. Yes. Okay. 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. Okay, so these are international efforts that they're doing, I guess. And they've hyperlinked targeting elusive child traffickers. Should I click on that all right no it just says we target the traffickers okay we combine special operations

0:24:33 Thomas: Their mission okay apparently yeah yeah that's what I was thinking we should click yeah why not why don't we and then I'm expecting like again 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 right hmm okay yeah why don'T you

0:25:43 Lydia: 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 the world but what what was the point of hyperlinking that like

0:26:09 Thomas: It's not yeah yeah I'm still trying at this point I'm like what do they do I don't like what is happening and then you can scroll down I know it's yeah it does kind of but yeah because

0:26:17 Lydia: That that could just live on your about page also this is the same whatever uh we leverage all tools

0:26:22 Thomas: There's a little more if you scroll down a guy with a shotgun I think all right yeah it's very

0:26:25 Lydia: At our disposal is on top of a photo of a guy with yeah some sort of shotgun and it says instructor

0:26:31 Thomas: Military very like uh tactical whatever like that's the just the whole site is that theme

0:26:32 Lydia: Yeah we support and train leos we provide training for both law enforcement officers and government

0:26:38 Thomas: Hmm. Interesting. Huh. Okay. Hmm. Yeah. Next step, maybe. Yep. Actually, you should read that. The first sentence especially is a little important. Hmm, yeah. Interesting, keep reading. Well, that's convenient. Yeah, yeah, yeah? Well, they're just supporting other people. Oh, yeah! Interesting. That kind of does it for that page. Let's see if there's anything else here.

0:26:43 Lydia: Forces around the world. 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, public sector, let me FOIA, see if I can get some contracts. That's what Lydia would have done. Yeah. And then they instill fear in those who exploit the vulnerable. Sentinel Foundation, by design, conducts our counter-trafficking operations in the shadows and the background. Okay. You will not see us highlight the details of our impact online or in the media. Convenient. Really convenient for a 501c3. Wow. 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 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 uh-huh and then use chat gpt for the copy yeah

0:27:53 Thomas: 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 thought, cause 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, couldI just be like, yeah, well, the things I do, you don't know them. They're from Canada, but they're awesome. Like those, you know, essentially, cause so far it's like, well we're in the shadows. We don't, you you know, we don't want credit for anything we do, but I was looking around. I was like, there's gotta be something. Is there something? And they do have a few things they point to kind of, yeah. But I mean, that also is like, we offer training, you know? It's like, okay. I, I'm, I don't doubt that that's a thing they probably do, but if I go to, and I let, they have to use all the terminology. That's like 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 sentinel sit rep so I was like oh maybe that'll tell us what what's going on here we're gonna look at that sit rep we get a map that has a bunch of locations it's like oh

0:28:11 Lydia: Yeah yeah totally well they have like the training section right oh oh yeah yeah yeah I'm on it too oh you mean this image where they've put a push pin on top of peru to make it very very clear

0:29:10 Thomas: Okay they're working in the united states el salvador colombia peru chile brazil nicaragua ukraine uganda bangladesh thailand vietnam tajikistan that's a random one oh okay because is near afghanistan and uganda okay that's just a map though they don't there's nothing that goes with it these are places on a map so there's this one thing they point to here with peru I guess we could read that impact delivered peru yeah 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 can maybe read

0:29:47 Lydia: All right. 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 to ensure children can be safely supported post-rescue. Okay. And then some highlights and outcomes. Memorandum of understanding. Mm-hmm.

0:29:49 Thomas: The impact delivered part what's their expansion is 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

0:30:27 Lydia: Yeah. No, no, I think it's just, you know, civil service.

0:30:31 Thomas: 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 they're training like it's all so like okay what are you you doing like conducted multi-day intelligence and surveillance training outcomes yeah we were

0:30:39 Lydia: Well, listen. Yeah, so here are their outcomes, okay? Yeah. Operational presence in Peru established. Like, we got off the plane. Okay.

0:30:53 Thomas: There yeah okay oh okay they're ready they're they're all that essentially just means they're

0:30:55 Lydia: Very cool outcome. Partner agencies are now equipped to support joint field operations. Observations yeah aftercare partners identified and prepared for post-rescue support I know sex

0:31:04 Thomas: In contact with somebody there okay sorry sorry just after care in this context of like bdsm after we did some real crazy stuff together after care partners everybody we use the after care

0:31:16 Lydia: It's cuddles yep and prepare and prepare we're getting ready foundation laid for

0:31:25 Thomas: Buddy system identify your after care partner yep prepare prepare I love how their outcomes and they're all like prepared yeah what's the last one foundation lay your q4 plus you know

0:31:39 Lydia: For coordinated rescue mission deployment in q4 plus plus so sometime after q4 oh interesting

0:31:45 Thomas: No, we don't have the Q4 report, even though we're in Q1. I need my sit rep. I need my Q4 sit rep, yeah, 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, that could be something going on there, yeah yeah, yeah yep, and why don't you

0:31:52 Lydia: Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it's almost literally identical to the key highlights, by the way.

0:32:05 Lydia: When I'm looking at the outcomes, it is right next to the Key Highlights. They're almost identical. So silly. Oh, is it going to be the same thing? We got off the plane. OK, do you want Key Highlight

0:32:13 Thomas: Just check out the bullet points for Uganda, let's see if they, it might be, but they might've put it in a different order. I mean, they're kind of the same, aren't they?

0:32:23 Lydia: Or Outcomes? Yeah. OK. I'll start with Key Highlights. Yeah? Multi-region rescue missions executed okay coordinated operations with okoa plus special police I guess a location in uganda

0:32:25 Thomas: Wait, hold on. Yeah. Cause there is something there. Okay. Rescue missions executed. That sounds like something, maybe they did something probably. I don't know. Okay, yeah. It's all resume stuff. This is when you had a do nothing job and you have to put it on your resume and be

0:32:42 Lydia: Okay strengthened intelligence and communications network yeah identified operational efficiency refinements oh my god yeah yeah a lot of this is just like bullshitty yes let's talk your outcomes

0:32:57 Thomas: Be like, what did I do at this job? Well, I identified operational efficiency refinements for sure. Now that was just a highlight. Now, if we go to my outcome section of my resume. Yeah, you're my, you're mine. Well, uh, I improved multi-agency coordination. That was a big thing that I did in Uganda and my time at Uganda Inc. I expanded the 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 a little bigger and so we made a bigger pipeline you know I reduced future deployment inefficiencies what so once again it's all like is there a thing like

0:33:09 Lydia: What did you actually accomplish okay all right Uganda Inc. action oh my god yeah right yeah absolutely yeah yeah honestly it's like I look at this and I just have more questions

0:33:42 Thomas: 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 okay maybe I'll be wrong maybe the next page will be and we save 50 kids from a a fucking dungeon or something, you know, it could be something awful. Like maybe they're doing it, but it's always like, that's amazing language, reduced future deployment inefficiencies. When I was writing my resume, I was tired of writing prepared over and over prepared. We prepared, we prepared. So I'm like, well, like you, the hiring person asked, like, is there anything that's not like preparation based? And I'm glad you asked. I also reduced Reduced future deployment inefficiencies. Yeah.

0:34:27 Lydia: I don't feel like this is giving me confidence in this organization and me wanting to donate to it

0:34:27 Thomas: I'm a perfectionist and I care too much are my main weaknesses.

0:34:33 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Strengthened intelligence and communications network. Yeah. 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. You get a bullet point on each side now.

0:34:38 Thomas: And also I reinforced partner field relationships, which I think was exactly identical to the other one. Or maybe it's a little bit different language. Yeah. Okay. A little bit difference. Oh, boy.

0:35:02 Lydia: No, that's the thing. It's like you don't even have to go that direction.

0:35:03 Thomas: 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, you know, maybe blurred out, but yeah, there's a lot you could do.

0:35:20 Lydia: Like you can give us numbers without compromising anybody's safety. You can give US some sort of details, you know, like a particular mission was 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.

0:35:41 Thomas: There's a lot you could do.

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

0:35:42 Thomas: Let's see.

0:35:45 Lydia: Yeah. This one's a little more specific. Well, OK. Under key highlights, 65 frontline personnel trained. We have a number. We

0:35:46 Thomas: Well, we can keep going through it. Is it? All right. Trainings. Yeah.

0:35:55 Lydia: Have a member. Yes. Right. And it specifically says underneath this section, too, that this fulfilled formal MOU requirements

0:35:56 Thomas: Well, okay. So they're doing trainings and like, 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 don't think you could say this is fraud because they are providing trainings. It's not like they're a fictional organization. I'm not saying that or anything. I mean, isn't that just a fancy way of saying, well, we contacted some people and said we could

0:36:16 Lydia: 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 I mean yeah I guess I guess you would hope that the mou

0:36:31 Thomas: Train you. And they're like, all right. And then they paid us to train them on this. Yeah. And so we have a contract of some kind. Yeah, yeah. So Unified Rescue Plus Evidence Handling Procedures introduced. Oh, that's probably high level Ugandan leadership participation. All right.

0:36:38 Lydia: Would include additional stuff and not just this training but yeah I don't know that sounds like that's part of training they yeah they go back and forth is the thing yeah I dont know

0:36:55 Thomas: 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, 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?

0:37:21 Lydia: Or they are responsible for it yeah sustainable daily protection capacity

0:37:23 Thomas: Yeah Yeah. Sustainable daily protection capacity strengthened. What? I mean, okay. MOU training summit, Uganda. Okay. Train, train, train. We won't go through all of this, but train, train, this is pretty much identical. Yep. Yep, and they're like, if we move more toward

0:37:38 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 oh give us your cars yeah yeah oh well here we go down at

0:37:45 Thomas: 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, 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. Okay. Placing a GPS track. Oh, I'm wrong. So 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 to map the network thoroughly before interdiction to ensure permanent disruption rather than isolated arrests. Oh, yeah. OK. Doing reconnaissance. All right.

0:38:28 Lydia: 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 right right yeah yeah it is curious

0:38:33 Thomas: Hmm. OK. Yeah. I mean, who knows? GPS tracking and network mapping were executed. And that's the thing is like because they're working with the law enforcement agencies, I mean I still think if there was a news article that was like local police rescued 10 children from thing, I, I'm positive that they could publish that or, or link to it or whatever. Like they could show a picture, like if it, 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. 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.

0:39:23 Lydia: Because I mean we haven't seen anything uh-huh uh-uh ongoing and then just bold because it

0:39:25 Thomas: Oh wait hold on hold on on the next page there might be something here impact delivered operation little ones retribution parentheses ongoing okay huh okay targeting serial predators responsible

0:39:37 Lydia: Catches my eye child rapist is successfully arrested so mm-hmm yeah I've got to think

0:39:42 Thomas: For major sexual exploitation offenses against minors in central and southern uganda sentinel supported the arrest of a high-risk offender while gathering evidence on additional perpetrators connected to a to broader exploitation networks all right that says they located and arrested Arrested? Oh, so are they allowed to operate as a paramilitary or a parapolice? Is there a word for that? They're like, you know what I mean? Like, how did they arrest people? Oh it says arrested, arrest executed in cooperation with special police, victim slash witness case documentation supported, high harm predator permanently neutralized, additional prosecutions in progress, network dismantling ongoing.

0:40:06 Lydia: That they have to be like in coordination with the local law enforcement like that they support the arrest or something like I don't think that they're just going up by themselves yeah yeah yeah

0:40:30 Thomas: Going okay it sounds like something's happening there all right so they've got millions of dollars

0:40:32 Lydia: Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm Hmm. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sound of freedom. Yeah, well, yeah, but and but then people

0:40:35 Thomas: To go sit in and maybe give some pointers while local police do a thing like it's like that might all be true and I'm I'm sure it is but like do you need this organization to do that like is it is 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 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 weird. There's something about this that I'm like, it feels like something that would really appeal to these people. Remember that movie a year or two ago that was like the border thing that was Sound of Freedom. Yeah, like that kind of thing. And I'm just like, what's this? I don't know. It's just a little, this is a lot of words that don't say much yeah and then impact delivered oak and smoke look at that one why don't you tell me what that

0:41:25 Lydia: Get to cosplay as these white savior military folk. Okay. Yes. Designed for trust building

0:41:33 Thomas: Looks like because to me there's a nice picture of some men in suits with like drinks so it sounds like yeah so they have a nice party and spend a bunch of money on stuff uh-huh uh-huh. Ohio range

0:41:41 Lydia: And mission alignment with established advocates and emerging donors. Oh. So it's their party private donor relationship building event. Okay? Mm hmm? Yeah, it's important work. Mm

0:41:53 Thomas: Day so they did social media and maybe shot at a gun range all right there is a thing that so I I don't know if it was in this quarter, but the biggest thing that I saw that they did, and this is, you know, this is good. 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. So crisis response, and it's funny, they have a whole tab on their website for it.

0:42:20 Lydia: Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. I saw that. I was confused by that.

0:42:23 Thomas: Click on that, and then there's only one thing, and its Western North Carolina. 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 impacted by Hurricane Helene.

0:42:48 Thomas: All right. So that's I mean, that's cool. I think there was another there's a place where they also say they tried to help. And 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 Afghanistan. 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?

0:43:08 Lydia: Mm-huh. Hmmmm. Mm-hm. Mmh. Mm.

0:43:19 Thomas: It's a bizarre thing. So then I wanted to check out more because at this point, I 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 a long interview with someone named Matt Murphy, and it says President of Sentinel Foundation. And this is from July 25th, 2023. Now, what's weird about that? What's weird about that is when I go to the tax documents and I look at 2022, just in case, and I look at key employees, no Matt person there. The president is listed as Glenn Devitt. That's weird.

0:44:01 Lydia: Yeah, and that's who was in the, uh, the Sentinel report thingy that we were just looking at.

0:44:02 Thomas: Okay. 2023. Well, now the president is listed as Andrew Gunther. Oh yeah. Okay. 2024 maybe. 2024, there isn't a president listed and none of the people there's, there's about 10 names in each. None of them are Matt Murphy, which is like, I think I know what's going on maybe, but 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 their stuff. But that was just another weird thing. I'm like, how is he the president, but he's not even listed on the tax documents. Doesn't seem right. So that's a mystery. But I watched this long interview. The description says president of Sentinel Foundation. Isn't that weird? And so I think we'll take an episode break because this video's got some stuff, man. This is, this is, 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, is this real? Like what? What's going on with this Sentinel Foundation? How bullshit is this? We'll find, we'll listen to this interview a bit.

0:44:10 Lydia: Mm-mm. Right. Hmmm. Yeah, ooh boy. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Exactly, exactly. Jay-Z knew what was up.

0:45:20 Thomas: It. Got a lot of clips and we'll be the judge of that. So thanks for listening so much, everybody. And thanks for supporting. And next time we're going to delve more into the Sentinel Foundation and other organizations. Oh man, I got my mind on Vivaldi, I have Vivaldi on my mind.

0:46:05 Lydia: I don't think that's Jay-Z. Oh my God. Cut it all. Jesus Christ. No. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh boy.

0:46:06 Thomas: No idea. Not this again. Yeah, it's Verity. It's Vérité. No, I'm just kidding. Instead of Jay-Z, like, I need my Q4 sit rep.