OMG! Joe Rogan just revealed @Barknaway has an IQ of 407. He is smarter than any of us. Do I owe @Barknaway an apology?

[stevenkesslar]

 

I was working out with Joe Rogan today.  And I mentioned we have a goofy dumb mascot dog here that mostly just barks all the time.  When I mentioned his name Rogan was stunned.

"Dude, you don't know about @Barknaway?  Damn!  I mean this dog is smarter than any human being!  His IQ is 407.  He's even smarter than Elon.  Who everyone knows is the smartest guy alive."

So I was like, "Shit.  And here I thought the dog was stupid, and dangerous.  Should I apologize?"

"Fuck yeah," Rogan said.  "You better apologize fast.  And while you're at it better apologize to Elon, too.  Elon stopped the biggest fraudster money laundering operation in history at USAID."

 

Well, sorry to say.  But never mind.

I came back from the gym all excited to have my Big Mea Culpa moment.  Miss Graham is gone.  So there is a natural opening for some drama and ass licking, I figured.

But when I looked into this Elon stuff, the numbers literally did not add up.

Quote

For sure billions of dollars are missing.  In fact, trillions are unaccounted for that were sent off into various, they don't even know where .... 

 

So in an effort to draft my apology, I asked AI.  Here's what I learned.

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The Claim and Reality

• The Claim: During discussions on The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan claimed that USAID was a "money laundering operation" where billions or trillions of dollars were completely unaccounted for. [1, 2]

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The Reality: A total of "trillions" missing is mathematically impossible for the agency. USAID’s entire cumulative budget over its entire 30-year history is less than a trillion dollars. For perspective, USAID's annual budget in recent years hovered around $32 billion to $42 billion, meaning the agency never handled or possessed the scale of funds being claimed

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While critics and auditors frequently point to standard bureaucratic waste, inefficiencies, or documentation errors in foreign aid, no official audit or government report has ever found trillions—or even billions—stolen or missing from USAID in the manner alleged.

It took me maybe two minutes to figure this out using AI.  And it fact checks with several articles I then read to confirm all these facts.  Right after being informed hundreds of thousands of people may already be dead thanks to these USAID cuts, Rogan could have Googled it in real time before he opened his mouth. 

It seems clear to me Rogan really doesn't give a shit whether anything he says is true.  As long as he's not giving bad medical advice he can be sued for.  Some dead kid in Africa or Asia?  They're not gonna sue Joe Rogan.  

No Basis for Corruption Accusations About USAID

AI confirmed the same, and added this about how shoddy Musk's butcher job was:

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Many of the figures and "receipts" shared by Musk's group contained basic tracking errors, such as repeatedly listing the same contract multiple times or misstating the financial values of government agreements.

 

I have to say I am disappointed.  Call me vain.  But I thought it was kind of cool to be associated with the smartest dog, or human, alive.

Sadly it turns out that's not mathematically possible, either.  The highest claimed IQ is in the 200s.  But most guidelines say few people have an IQ over 160.

I'm thinking if you put Joe Rogan and Elon Musk and @Barknaway in a room, maybe you could get a decent IQ score if you added them.  Just not any actual facts.

So I guess there is no need for an apology after all.  And it confirms that with our bad dumb barking dog, there's no need for facts either.

 

[Pete1111]

11 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

 

I was working out with Joe Rogan today.  And I mentioned we have a goofy dumb mascot dog here that mostly just barks all the time.  When I mentioned his name Rogan was stunned.

"Dude, you don't know about @Barknaway?  Damn!  I mean this dog is smarter than any human being!  His IQ is 407.  He's even smarter than Elon.  Who everyone knows is the smartest guy alive."

So I was like, "Shit.  And here I thought the dog was stupid, and dangerous.  Should I apologize?"

"Fuck yeah," Rogan said.  "You better apologize fast.  And while you're at it better apologize to Elon, too.  Elon stopped the biggest fraudster money laundering operation in history at USAID."

 

Well, sorry to say.  But never mind.

I came back from the gym all excited to have my Big Mea Culpa moment.  Miss Graham is gone.  So there is a natural opening for some drama and ass licking, I figured.

But when I looked into this Elon stuff, the numbers literally did not add up.

 

So in an effort to draft my apology, I asked AI.  Here's what I learned.

It took me maybe two minutes to figure this out using AI.  And it fact checks with several articles I then read to confirm all these facts.  Right after being informed hundreds of thousands of people may already be dead thanks to these USAID cuts, Rogan could have Googled it in real time before he opened his mouth. 

It seems clear to me Rogan really doesn't give a shit whether anything he says is true.  As long as he's not giving bad medical advice he can be sued for.  Some dead kid in Africa or Asia?  They're not gonna sue Joe Rogan.  

No Basis for Corruption Accusations About USAID

AI confirmed the same, and added this about how shoddy Musk's butcher job was:

 

I have to say I am disappointed.  Call me vain.  But I thought it was kind of cool to be associated with the smartest dog, or human, alive.

Sadly it turns out that's not mathematically possible, either.  The highest claimed IQ is in the 200s.  But most guidelines say few people have an IQ over 160.

I'm thinking if you put Joe Rogan and Elon Musk and @Barknaway in a room, maybe you could get a decent IQ score if you added them.  Just not any actual facts.

So I guess there is no need for an apology after all.  And it confirms that with our bad dumb barking dog, there's no need for facts either.

 

 

I admit not being too familiar with Rogan's channel other than his popularity with folks that tend to be to the right of me, so popular that corporate media mentions him now and then.

I remember his reality show Fear Factor, but stopped watching and never followed any of his later content.  

Years ago I met a guy that wrote reality TV scripts.  Yes, there are scripts.  Those shows are scripted to keep viewers hooked.   The following link is a scene from Fear Factor.

https://x.com/HappyPunch/status/1738269792442671438/video/1

Rogan is allegedly worth $250,000,000, so he has succeeded in doing whatever keeps folks hooked.  I wonder if his huge Spotify contract has a clause to maintain a minimum level of clicks, views, downloads etc.

As more and more politicians, influencers and pundits abandon Trump's good ship lollypop and tailor their own new alternate reality, I wonder how they all will scramble to maintain followers, and whether Rogan's competitors will call him out for his lies:   Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and so on.  There is only so much money to go around so one might wonder if at some point, other influencers will take aim at Rogan.

In the old days of 60 Minutes, Rogan's story would be a perfect segment, harking back to Fear Factor silliness, and fast forwarding to is current stardom, pockmarked with lies.   

As long as Rogan can pull the likes of Bono on his show, he must be doing and saying whatever keeps the sheeple listening.  

 

[stevenkesslar]

46 minutes ago, Pete1111 said:

As long as Rogan can pull the likes of Bono on his show, he must be doing and saying whatever keeps the sheeple listening.  

The formula is remarkably simple.   If you are famous and appear on my show, I make more money.  So if you appear on my show, I will like you.  Because you make me money.

It's basically the same old same old as mainstream media.  It's a business.  Of course they always had an agenda. 

One big difference is that with mainstream media there is a standard around facts.  With Joe Rogan, there obviously is not.  He concedes the point to Bono that maybe 300,000 people have already died thanks to cuts in USAID.  But then he goes right back into his false rant about "trillions" of dollars in fraud. Rogan is going out of his way to say, "I could give a flying fuck about facts, and math."

That said, Bernie Sanders appears on his show and Rogan endorses him for POTUS.  Donald Trump appears on his show and Rogan endorses him for POTUS.  James Talarico appears on his show and Rogan says you should run for POTUS.  So the formula is very simple.  Rogan wants to be rich, and is.  If you appear on his show and make him money, he will probably help your political career.  What a shocker!  How moronic is that?  🤔

 

 

If there is a moron in the room, it is Kamala Harris.  What if Kamala Harris appeared on his show and made him money, and Rogan endorsed her instead?  Some votes would have changed.  She did it with Charlemagne Tha God.  Biden bent over backward to insult Charlemagne, and all Blacks.  Kamala dazzled him with warmth and recipes.

Rogan really is that guy who you always want to make sure you're the last voice he hears before he opens his mouth.  And you also want to make sure you're helping him get clicks and make money.  It's very simple.  Trump of all people knew that.

It all helps tear the system down.  And it invites disaster.  True or not, I have resolved myself to that.  Now it's just a question of whether we can keep the disasters contained, Or they blow us all up somehow.  Maybe, as Talarico says, we will build back a less corrupt system that is less unequal.

[Pete1111]

5 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

The formula is remarkably simple.   If you are famous and appear on my show, I make more money.  So if you appear on my show, I will like you.  Because you make me money.

It's basically the same old same old as mainstream media.  It's a business.  Of course they always had an agenda. 

One big difference is that with mainstream media there is a standard around facts.  With Joe Rogan, there obviously is not.  He concedes the point to Bono that maybe 300,000 people have already died thanks to cuts in USAID.  But then he goes right back into his false rant about "trillions" of dollars in fraud. Rogan is going out of his way to say, "I could give a flying fuck about facts, and math."

That said, Bernie Sanders appears on his show and Rogan endorses him for POTUS.  Donald Trump appears on his show and Rogan endorses him for POTUS.  James Talarico appears on his show and Rogan says you should run for POTUS.  So the formula is very simple.  Rogan wants to be rich, and is.  If you appear on his show and make him money, he will probably help your political career.  What a shocker!  How moronic is that?  🤔

 

 

If there is a moron in the room, it is Kamala Harris.  What if Kamala Harris appeared on his show and made him money, and Rogan endorsed her instead?  Some votes would have changed.  She did it with Charlemagne Tha God.  Biden bent over backward to insult Charlemagne, and all Blacks.  Kamala dazzled him with warmth and recipes.

Rogan really is that guy who you always want to make sure you're the last voice he hears before he opens his mouth.  And you also want to make sure you're helping him get clicks and make money.  It's very simple.  Trump of all people knew that.

It all helps tear the system down.  And it invites disaster.  True or not, I have resolved myself to that.  Now it's just a question of whether we can keep the disasters contained, Or they blow us all up somehow.  Maybe, as Talarico says, we will build back a less corrupt system that is less unequal.

Thank you for schooling me on Rogan.  I will swing over to Spotify and listen to him.  

Agreed, the formula for all content these days must make money. 

But figuring out the agenda behind all the content from Fox News to Joe Rogan to Morning Joe to PBS News Hour to Mark Halperin is still important. Sounds like you've observed Rogan can be persuaded about a range of agendas.

If Joe Rogan truly favored Bernie Sanders, then I'm on his side in some cases, especially compared to NBC News management back in the day, e.g. in 2015 when they were limiting coverage of Bernie Sanders.  Hillary was in the tank for them.

That Rogan voted for Tr*mp instead of Kamala Harris does make me go "hmmmm."

I see both Hillary and Kamala have never appeared on Rogan's show.  I suppose that was their missed opportunity in either case.  I voted for both of them, but did not like how they came off on TV.  Like I've said before, "too much cackling."  How would Rogan have handled THAT?

I know this is me sounding like the "angry old white guy" I complained about on that other thread, but I would think Rogan's audience would look for candidates that fill airspace with consequential answers, and not guffaws.  I would have been tempted to add a rim shot sound effect when the Dem candidate chose to guffaw instead of discuss.

Many agree that Talarico has a great message.  I do worry lately how not enough candidates are talking about jobs.  You've pointed to that as a key to winning, especially in battleground states.

Are we hearing much about "jobs" from people like Mamdani, El-Sayed, Sanders or Talarico?

 

[stevenkesslar]

4 hours ago, Pete1111 said:

Are we hearing much about "jobs" from people like Mamdani, El-Sayed, Sanders or Talarico?

Great question.

So three videos.  Two of which are short.  Like two minutes each.  And one of which is longer, but sexy.  Sorry, no wrestling singlets though.  😉

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find a short clip where some democratic socialist talked about how they will create jobs, in their own words.

I couldn't find anything that was short and made any sense to me.  This is the clip that I thought came closest.

No surprise that Bernie would be the one to define the movement Bernie as much as anyone started.

But that definition fits for me, based on my own understanding of what people who want "democratic socialism" want.  They don't want Putin to revive the Soviet Union so they can live in it.  They want a set of economic rights.  Bernie grounds it in FDR and MLK.   I think that's right.  Many people seem to view it as New Deal Plus.  Or Equal Rights Plus.  Like King in the latter stages of the Civil Rights Era, who tied the movement more and more to universal economic rights.

What universal economic rights?

I thought for a two minute video, that did a pretty good job of defining what lots of young democratic socialists want.  Affordable housing.  Decent wages.  More unions.  Affordable child care.  Affordable health care.  What Bernie would call a set of economic rights.

That all begs the question:  but how do you actually create jobs?  I think what a democratic socialist would say is we don't want to replace a free market.  We want to fix all the inequalities it creates.  And this is where you get into the Green New Deal, as one example of how public investments will create all these great new jobs.  Biden and Harris did not lose because of that idea.  They lost because of inflation and things like seemingly open borders.

The core idea to me has always been very simple:  raise taxes on the rich and corporations and use the money to support the working class and middle class.  This always polls very well.  And that is certainly what Mandani, El-Sayed, Sanders, and Talarico are talking about.  Talarico is on the cutting edge, in my mind.  Texas has NOT elected a Democrat statewide in a long time.  And Talarico is NOT a democratic socialist.  But going after the "billionaires" who the current economy is rigged to benefit sure ain't hurting him.

So there.  That's my answer.  As long as they are talking about these things, they are doing pretty well.  Even in swing states and Texas.  When they talk about getting rid of ICE, and the US Senate, and borders, and the police, and prisons, it's not "democratic socialism" so much as "a way to scare people and lose elections."  To me, at least.

One other idea, before I get to the sexy part.  I was struck back in 2017 by some interview I read with a Republican Senator.  Who I don't recall.  But it was a really good interview.  The Senator said that there was a broad awareness that all the lost factories and factory jobs in the Midwest/Rust Belt had created a huge political sore spot after eight years of Obama.  And this Republican said, correctly in my mind, that Trump did a very good job of picking the scab off that wound.  Those fallen Blue Wall states gave him his victories both times.  But the Senator said we are very aware we can't just drop tire and steel and auto factories down from the sky and bring back the 1950's.

My point is we have now gone through two Trump Administrations.  And in fact they have never offered a comprehensive solution.  It's now just a fact that cutting taxes for the rich didn't bring back factories.  So that's what democratic socialists can run against. 

But what can they run for?  I think the best answer so far is what Bernie says.  A bill of economic rights.  You may drive an Uber or work at Walmart.  But at least you should have certain economic things.  And if a capitalist economy can not produce those things by itself, a democratic socialist politics should tax the rich and provide it to you.  I think two Trump Administrations, not to mention Trump Grift, set the stage for this to seem like a very legitimate idea.

And now the sexy part.  Talk about BDE.

In a way that gym bro chat was disappointing.  You'd think if you put a Sandernista like David Sirota in El-Sayed's home gym you'd get some type of policy wonk discussion about a Green New Deal or preventing AI job loss.  No such luck.  We do learn why El-Sayed thinks Fetterman is an asshole.

And I'll leave it up to my younger and prettier Sister In Cock to comment on their less than perfect gym fashion choices.

But the guy has BDE + GBE.   And if Gym Bro Energy is not enough, he has his own ideas about masculinity.  It's an interesting chat.  Nice arms and legs, too!

[stevenkesslar]

On 8/3/2026 at 7:06 PM, Pete1111 said:

Are we hearing much about "jobs" from people like Mamdani, El-Sayed, Sanders or Talarico?

I started my monthly donation to El-Sayed today and was poking around his website.

Jobs and Trade

That's a pretty good answer.   That said, I'm not sure how well "R & D" resonates with voters in Michigan.  "Unions" is a good answer.   But it speaks to what I said above.  You can't just parachute in auto factories and steel factories.  \

To me the simple and good enough answer is "tax the rich and corporations more and invest it in things that create well paying jobs."  Again, seemed to work when Socialist Dwight Eisenhower was President.

This was Haley Stevens' answer, brought to you courtesy of $30 million from AIPAC.

They were great ads.  But they didn't work.  And I assume most people have no clue AIPAC paid for them.