Shane Gillis vs Bill Burr “Blood Money” Scandal, Government Shutdown 2025, & Michigan Church Attack
PDS Published 09/29/2025
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Marc Maron, Shane Gillis, and more comedians are slamming a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia that a bunch of their fellow stand-ups are participating in.
Right, it is called the Riyadh (Re-odd) Comedy Festival, it kicked off on Friday and lasts through October 9th, and it has a massive lineup:
Some of them have taken the stage already, some of them have sets still upcoming, but they are all facing a ton of backlash for taking this gig at all.
Because Saudi Arabia, as you probably know, for quite a while has been criticized for its human rights abuses, like arresting arresting journalists, exploited labor, executions for crimes like drug offenses, and more.
In fact, just earlier this year, the nation’s top court executed a journalist who had been behind bars for over seven years.
So last week, Human Rights Watch issued a statement arguing that the Saudi government is using festival:
“to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.”
With the group urging the performers to use their time at the festival to urge Saudi leaders to free unjustly detained journalists and activists so that they are not laundering the government’s reputation.
Noting that the festival dates include October 2, which is the anniversary of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, with a researcher at Human Rights Watch adding:
“The seventh anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder is no laughing matter, and comedians receiving hefty sums from Saudi authorities shouldn’t be silent on prohibited topics in Saudi like human rights or free speech.”
And it is not just activists and nonprofits slamming comedians for participating in this festival, tons of other comedians are speaking out, too.
Marc Maron recently posting a video where he decried those who took money to perform, saying:
“I mean, the same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase. But don’t let that stop the yucks, it’s gonna be a good time! Full disclosure, I was not asked to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival so it’s kinda easy for me to take the high road on this one.” (0:24-0:46)
But back in July, Shane Gillis said he actually was offered the chance to perform in Saudi Arabia, but:
“I think I’m gonna pass…Is it for the troops?...not for the troops. It’s for the Saudis, for the Saudi princes, and everyone’s like, ‘You should do it. Everyone is doing it.’ It’s like, for Saudis? Weren’t those the 9/11 guys?” (59:13-59:30)
With him later reportedly saying the organizers doubled his pay offer, but he said he refused the “significant” amount of money so he could take a principled stand.
And as far as how much people are allegedly making to take the stage there, comedian Tim Dillon previously said he was doing the fest because he got a whopping $375,000 for one show, and he also claimed that some performers were offered as much as $1.6 million.
But, Saudi Arabia apparently fired him from the gig over jokes he made about forced labor in the country.
Though, some of the other performers still on the lineup have defended their choice to go, again specifically pointing to the cash, with Pete Davidson saying on a recent episode of Theo Von’s podcast:
“I’ve been getting a little bit of a little bit of flack just because my dad died in 9/11, so they’re like, how could you possibly go there?” (8:13-8:20)
“I just get the routing and then I see the number, and I go, I’ll go.” (8:01-8:06)
And so, it is not too surprising that a lot of the general backlash we have seen is people calling everyone who took the check to perform a sellout.
Some thinking it is ironic that some of the sort of “free speech warriors” are among the comedians performing in a country slammed for repressing free speech.
And if you go to the comments of a ton of performers’ instagrams, you can see their fans calling them out individually.
But I would love to know your thoughts on any of this, of course.
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The President of the United States of America shared and then deleted a seemingly AI-generated video shilling a magic bed that cures all illnesses.
But, VERY notably here, this isn’t something he just made up — it’s actually a conspiracy theory that has been embraced by factions of QAnon.
Right, the idea here is that there are futuristic medical pods — known as “medbeds”— that can miraculously cure every ailment and even regrow limbs.
But, for whatever reason, they are being kept from the American public by some combination of the government, liberals, the elite, and/or Big Pharma.
And so you had Trump playing into that by posting a video on Truth Social of what appeared to be an AI-generated Fox News segment of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, making a big announcement about medbeds:
AI LARA: “Breaking now, President Donald J. Trump has announced a historic new healthcare system: the launch of America's first medbed hospitals, and a national medbed card for every citizen.”
AI TRUMP: “Every American will soon receive their own medbed card. With it, you'll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals, led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world. These facilities are safe, modern, and designed to restore every citizen to full health and strength. This is the beginning of a new era in American healthcare.”
AI LARA: “In this first phase, only a limited number of medbed cards will be released. Registration details will be announced very soon.” 00:01 - 00:43
Right, and that absolutely wild video was reportedly up on Trump’s page for twelve hours before he deleted it.
With Fox News telling multiple outlets that the segment never aired on any of their channels or platforms.
But, as of recording, that’s basically all we know about this whole bizarre situation.
It’s still unclear where the video came from or why Trump posted it — and the White House has not responded to multiple requests for comment from media outlets.
EVERYTHING BELOW THIS IS AN OPTIONAL ADD, BUT NOT NECESSARY IF IT FEELS LIKE WE DON’T NEED IT OR IT DRAGS:
And with all this, the conversation online is basically what you would expect — many people slamming Trump for sharing a conspiracy theory.
Some saying it’s cruel for him to post that video while he and his party are making massive healthcare cuts — especially because some of his own followers genuinely believe this is a real thing.[]
Others also noting that the timing here is actually significant, with podcaster Ed Krassenstein writing:
“This comes as he prepares to let the enhanced ACA subsidies expire and is even willing to force a government shutdown to achieve it. The result would be millions of Americans facing crushing premium hikes and the real possibility of losing their coverage.” []
Right, with that in reference to the fact that Senate Democrats have refused to back a spending bill to fund the government and avert a shutdown if it doesn’t extend key Obamacare subsidies.
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In absolutely massive and – quite frankly – shocking news, the city Portland, Oregon has been ravaged by war.
At least, according to Donald Trump – who you had writing on social media on Saturday:
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
And with that, it’s not clear what Trump meant by “full force.”
In a statement, the Pentagon simply said it was “aware of the president’s directive to mobilize military personnel to Portland.”
And a departmental memo signed by defense secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly indicated that “200 members of the Oregon National Guard will be called into Federal service effective immediately for a period of 60 days.”
And, of course, that all begs the question: why?
Well, Portland has long been a favorite target for Trump – especially since 2020 when tens of thousands of people there protested racial injustice following the murder of George Floyd (BROLL: 0:21-0:27).
And Trump sent hundreds of federal agents into the city with their stated purpose being protecting the federal courthouse and other federal property from vandalism.
But this time around, we haven’t seen anything close to that scale.
What we’ve had for several months is a pretty small group of demonstrators – most nights no more than two dozen reportedly – camping outside a building used by ICE in Southwest Portland.
And notably, the city is actually threatening to take action against ICE for allegedly violating a conditional-use permit for leasing the building that limits the number of detainees and the length of time they can be held there.
But in any case, clashes have occasionally broken out between protesters and federal law enforcement at this building.
With the New York Times reporting that the protesters chant and hold up signs when federal cars leave the building – sometimes even attempting to block the vehicles – but ultimately drawing little or no response during the day and early evening.
But later in the evening, federal agents regularly leave the building to confront them and attempt to drive them away.
WIth one protester saying:
“They get violent.”
“Tear gas, batons, bear spray, rubber bullets, shields.”
And actually, with that, a charter school renting rented space next to the ICE building? It said it had to move out this fall – citing the heavy use of tear gas by federal agents and potential health risks for students.
Of course, on the flip side, you’ve had the Trump administration attributing any violence to the protesters.
And in fact, way back in July, the Department of Homeland Security also described this ICE facility as being “under siege” – adding in a statement:
“Rioters have attacked law enforcement officials, destroyed federal property, and have posted death threats at the facility.”
But for all that, Portland has stayed pretty off Trump's radar – with his attention mostly focused on cities like Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Chicago — just to name a few.
That is until earlier this month – when you had Fox News airing a report claiming to show protesters “wreaking havoc” outside of an ICE facility in Portland (BROLL)
Though, notably, you had footage of these small isolated anti-ICE protests that have been taking place over the past few months mixed in with a clip from the much larger 2020 protests – which apparently misled Trump about what was really happening.
WIth him saying in the Oval Office the next day that Portland hadn’t been on his list of cities to send troops into before, but after watching television the previous night, he may have changed his mind:
“Portland. Is unbelievable, what's going on and Portland? The destruction of the city. Well, I'm going to look at it now because I didn't know that was still going on. This has been going on for years.” (BYTE: 0:17-0:33)
And with that, you also once again spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that these protesters were being paid:
“These are paid terrorists. Okay, these are paid agitators, these are professional, I watched that last night, I'm very good at this stuff. These are paid agitators, they get paid money by radical left groups not radical right groups, radical left groups and they get paid a lot of money.” (BYTE: 0:53-1:11)
And that of course ties into his recent executive order declaring antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” — a designation that notably doesn’t actually exist under U.S. law.
Not to mention anti-fascism, like fascism itself, is a political ideology not a specific organization.
But regardless, we’ve seen Trump’s threats seemingly breathing new life into the protests – with hundreds gathering outside that ICE building last night, so it’ll be interesting to see if those continue to grow.
And then, we’ve also seen state and local officials presenting a unified front in objecting to the deployment of troops.
Right, with Governor Tina Kotek (Ko-tech) saying she learned of the president’s declaration after “waking up to the news on social media, like everyone else.”
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Donald Trump has now secured a criminal indictment against one former FBI Director.
And the guy who took that guy’s job? He may be next.
Right, we’re talking about James Comey – who was fired by Trump in 2017 and has since become a prominent critic of the president..
And we’re talking about Christopher Wray – who Trump appointed to replace Comey but then quickly soured on due to his perceived lack of loyalty.
But we’ll start with Comey because he’s the one a grand jury indicted on Thursday.
With this coming only a few days after the Trump publicly chided Attorney General Pam Bondifor not moving fast enough to prosecute Comey and the president’s other political enemies;
And with that, you’ve had the New York Times reporting that the filing of the indictment came over the objection of career prosecutors who found insufficient evidence to support charges but were overruled by Halligan.
In fact, the two-page indictment? It was signed only by Halligan – when it’s normal for these filings to be endorsed by multiple prosecutors who’ve been involved in gathering evidence in the case.
And in the end, you only had 14 of the 23 grand jurors who heard the presentation of charges voting to indict Comey – just narrowly clearing the 12-vote threshold.
And specifically, you had them deciding prosecutors had probable cause to bring one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.
Right, both of these counts? They relate to Comey's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
The first alleges that Comey lied when he told the committee he hadn’t authorized someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports regarding an investigation into “Person 1” – which appears to be a reference to Hillary Clinton.
And the second alleges that Comey "did corruptly endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede" the committee by making false statements.
And with that, Halligan also tried to get the grand jury to indict Comey on a second false statement charge but that one was rejected.
But still, Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Though, notably, many legal experts have said the case will be difficult to prove – and it could even get thrown out of court by pointing to Trump’s own statements as evidence of this being “vindictive prosecution.”
And with that, several current and former justice department officials have also condemned the decision to file charges on what they said was weak evidence – while Democratic politicians and rights groups have blasted the move.
With House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, for example, arguing the indictment is “a disgraceful attack on the rule of law” and saying “Donald Trump and his sycophants in the Department of Justice are completely and totally out of control.”
And then, you’ve also had a top figure at the ACLU calling the indictment “a grotesque abuse of presidential power” – adding that Trump has “yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America.”
As for Comey? He’s posted a video statement on social media and said that he’s innocent and welcomed a trial:
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either.” (BYTE)
On the side of the Trump administration, on the other hand, you’ve had Bondi claiming “no one is above the law” and arguing:
“Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.”
You also had Trump celebrating the news in a post on Truth Social – calling Comey “One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to” and claiming he’s “now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
Also, notably, you had him speaking to reporters and suggesting that Comey won’t be the last to be prosecuted:
“It's not a list, but I think there'll be others. I mean, they're corrupt. I mean, they're corrupt. He's—these were corrupt radical left Democrats, because Comey essentially was a—he's worse than a Democrat. I would say the Democrats are better than Comey. But no, there'll be others. Look, that's my opinion. They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history. What they've done is terrible. And so I hope there are others, because you can't let this happen to a country.” (BYTE: 0:06-0:38)
And with all that, it wasn’t long before you had Trump setting his sights on Comey’s successor Christopher Wray.
With this seemingly being driven by recent reports in right-wing media that more than two-hundred plainclothes FBI agents were present at the capital on January 6th.
Which conspiracy theorists point to this as evidence of the whole thing being an inside job aimed at framing and prosecuting Trump supporters.
With Trump, of course, being one of those conspiracy theorists.
Right, on Saturday, you had him writing on social media“that the FBI had secretly placed… 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax.”
Claiming that “This is different from what Director Christopher Wray stated, over and over again!”
Saying they were “probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists, but certainly not as “Law Enforcement Officials.”
And adding: “Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do. That’s two in a row, Comey and Wray, who got caught LYING, with our Great Country at stake. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO AMERICA AGAIN!”
But of course, it’s not so simple.
The Justice Department’s inspector general has already found that there is no evidence that undercover agents were in the crowd when the riot broke out.
There were twenty-six “confidential human sources” but:
1) They’re not agents or employees of the FBI.
And 2) According to the inspector general’s report, they didn’t tell the bureau of their plans to attend and none were instructed to violate any laws or participate in the riot.
And then, you did have actually FBI personnel on the scene, but only after the riot had already broken out and at the request of the Capitol Police –
With some also responding to pipe bombs placed near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters the night before.
And you even had current FBI Kash Patel acknowledging this on Fox News over the weekend – explaining that agents had been sent to the Capitol for “crowd control” purposes after the riot was already underway.
Although, with that, you still had Patel arguing that this was not the proper role of FBI agents, and pointing to Wray’s past refusal to disclose if any agents or sources were embedded within the crowd:
“This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened."
But of course, it’s also not clear that Wray lied to Congress.
In 2023, he very clearly told lawmakers that the violence at the Capitol was not part of some operation orchestrated by the FBI – but he refused to disclose if any agents or sources were embedded within the crowd.
But still you had Trump doubling down on this yesterday, saying he “would think” the Justice Department is investigating Wray.
So we’ll have to see what happens there, see what happens with the Comey case, and then just who else might be caught up in this.
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4 deadly mass shootings happened across the country this weekend alone - leaving at least 10 dead and many more injured.
And we’re going to start in Grand Blanc (Blank) Township in Michigan - a roughly 8,000 person community just outside Flint and roughly 50 miles from Detroit.
At roughly 10:30 yesterday morning, a four-door truck reportedly rammed through the doors of a local Mormon church before the driver got out and started shooting an assault rifle at the hundreds of people inside the church as they ran away.
Then a fire broke out - with local police saying that it was started intentionally by the gunman, who used gasoline as an accelerant.
And police say they also found explosive devices.
The shooter - who was later identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, a former Marine and veteran of the Iraq war - was shot and killed by police on the scene.
And with his death, the total number killed reached 5 - with two churchgoers shot and another two bodies pulled from the building after the fire.
With at least another 8 people being injured - 7 of those are in stable condition while one remains critical.
But we don’t know how many people were injured by the fire.
Now, police haven’t released the names of any of the victims and they warned that there will likely be more victims once they’re able to search the church.
With the local chief of police saying,
“We do believe that there were people up there that were near that fire and they were unable to get out of the church. So, we do believe we will find additional victims once we’re able to search that, once there are no signs of a fire reigniting.”
And the FBI saying they’re investigating this as a targeted act of violence - though the motive has yet to be determined.
We’re definitely going to have to keep an eye out for that because most of the community was caught wildly off guard by one of their own doing something like this.
Right, Sanford reportedly graduated from a nearby high school in 2004 before joining the Marines and having what was described as a stellar military career during the 4 years he served.
With a former high school classmate saying Sanford was an avid hunter who he regularly saw around town - even running into him at the gym earlier in the week.
With the classmate saying,
“He was happy to see me, he just seemed normal.”
In the realm of politics, public records indicate that Sanford wasn’t registered to either party but he has been pictured wearing pro-Trump shirts and the Daily Beast reports there is a Trump sign outside his house.
And a local consultant who collects voter and petition information told a local outlet that Sanford had recently signed two petitions - one to repeal Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID mandates and one to outlaw abortion in the state.
And while we don’t know Sanford’s connection with the church or what the motive was, we have seen many big names on the right speak out against violence in places of worship.
Including Trump - whose response to the shooting read,
“This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
“THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”
And Texas Governor Greg Abbott has promised to create a task force dedicated to protecting places of worship - writing on X,
“The escalation of violent attacks against people and places of faith is heinous and must end.”
But those weren’t the only official responses - several politicians chimed in following the shooting to condemn violence, praise first responders, and - of course - offer thoughts and prayers.
Including Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s Democratic Senators Elissa Slotkin and Gary Peters, as well as Mitt Romeny, a former Massachusetts Senator who lived in Michigan for a while.
There were also statements from Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel calling the shooting “awful” and “horrific.”
As for the community, we saw a local group of nurses in the middle of a strike holding a prayer vigil for the victims and the local school district canceled classes for today. [B Roll 1:35-1:47]
But we’re certainly not done - right, like I said, there were 4 mass shootings this weekend.
The next one we have to talk about happened in North Carolina - less than 14 hours before the shooting in Michigan, a gunman fired on an open-air dock-front bar in Southport from his boat on the water.
3 people were killed and another 5 were wounded before the shooter drove his boat away from the bar toward the Intracoastal Waterway.
Within about 30 minutes, he was spotted by the US Coast Guard and arrested.
The shooter was revealed to be Nigel Edge - a 40-year-old decorated combat veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in Iraq during 2005 and 2006.
When they brought him in, Edge was hit with 3 counts of first-degree murder, 5 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and 5 counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
According to the police, this was a “highly premeditated” attack that Edge carried out on his own.
As for the victims, their names haven’t been released but we do know that one of the injured isn’t doing well.
With police saying they’re “clinging for their life.”
Edge’s motive is still under investigation but the local police chief said that he is claiming to have PTSD after being injured in the line of duty during his time in Iraq.
And the chief went on to say that they were previously aware of Edge - he reportedly filed lawsuits against the city of Southport and the police department before.
But the district attorney added there was, quote, “nothing significant in his past which would give us any indication that he was capable of such horror."
From here, we’re going to move further south and talk about Texas - where 2 people were killed and several more injured at a shooting in the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino.
The shooting reportedly happened just after midnight Saturday night - when a raffle drew a large crowd to the casino.
The shooter fired on that crowd and then fled the scene and his car was tracked down by multiple law enforcement agencies before he was taken into custody.
The local sheriff’s department has identified the shooter as 34 year old Keryan (Kerry-en) Jones - a former member of the National Guard. [B Roll 4:03-4:15]
And he’s been charged with two counts of capital murder as well as four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
While the investigation is still ongoing, we do know who at least one of the victims was - a retired US Customs and Border Protection agent named Marcus Antley.
With the local mayor saying that Antley was a “beloved community member,” who, quote, “will be remembered not only for his career, but also for his generosity, leadership and the lasting friendships he built.”
The other victims, however, have yet to be named.
And then the last place we need to talk about is New Orleans - where 1 woman was killed and another 3 people were injured in a shooting on Bourbon Street.
Right, just before 2:30 Sunday morning, police responded to reports of gunfire.
When they arrived, they found 3 victims - one woman who was declared dead at the scene and another injured woman and man.
They later found another victim at a nearby intersection who had been grazed by one of the shots fired and was taken to the hospital with the other two injured victims.
We don’t have much information but we do know that the woman who died was reportedly a 33 year-old innocent bystander and the sister of one of the other victims.
As of now, the police are still looking for the shooter and trying to determine motive - but they did release stills to the public, looking for information about an unidentified man they say is a suspect in the case.
And police also confirmed that the shooting was caught on camera.
So we’re just going to have to wait for more information about that one.
Now, all of this is insane - all in all, the death toll was at least 10 people in the span of less than 24 hours because of these shootings.
And, it’s also worth noting that this year alone, we’ve seen at least 324 mass shootings according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
Which, in case you struggle with math, is more than one per day.
But even as those numbers rise, there still is absolutely nothing being done about it.
So we can’t even say, “we’ll see if this has any effect” because it probably won’t.
But I would love to know your thoughts - about any of these situations - in those comments down below.
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But then, you know, with everything that we've talked about today
that ultimately has brought us to the one final thing that I want to hit on.
You know, I do think it's important because it does
feel like there are a lot of people and a lot of entities out there that are
that are pushing us versus them less left versus right.
It's just a complete black and white situation of, you did this,
even if it's just someone drastically disconnected from you.
And it was this moment from this morning where I was talking to The Bulwarks.
Tim Miller for a podcast,
actually just put out on the In Good Faith podcast channel.
And of course, as always, I'll link to the full hour
in the description as well as the end of the video.
But here's what he said.
The other element to that that you're talking about is just this kind of a this
kind of never ending
internal cold civil war that we have kind of that,
that I think everybody kind of imagines or part of everybody's wrong to many people
kind of imagine that they're part off right on social media, which is like
after a tragedy, I need to post
to prove that it's the other side's fault.
Right?
Or I need to post to, like, remind people that
the like if this one was my fault.
Like, there's actually a bit more that's the other side's fault. Right.
And and my point is kind of like that is it
is an unhealthy way to think just individually.
People should stop doing that.
But also, like, you can't live in a society like that,
a way to be able to live, to get like Tyler Robinson was not on my team.
Like this guy that shot up the Mormon church
in in Michigan who apparently, like, wore a Trump shirt.
I, you know, we'll see what exactly the details are.
But like, that guy was not on Ben Shapiro's team.
You know what I mean?
Like, just because they both voted for Donald Trump at 2020, like,
we like, we need to all live together within, in a democratic society.
And if we treat the people on the other side like their worst
example is representative of everybody that voted for that person,
well, well, then it's kind of rational for some people to start
thinking that we should have a civil war.
You know, that it brings us to the end of this video.
You've got even more just a click away.
We've got my brand new full podcast with Tim Miller right here.
Covered a lot.
It gets spicy at times from Tim as well as your new as well DeFranco show.
They haven't seen it right here.
We've even got links in the description for both.
If you want to get filled in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever.
Yeah, thanks for watching.
I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
