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Hegseth, Iran, Melania, Epstein, Swalwell, Gonzales

Ricky and Rafael Season 34 Episode 202

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0:00 | 25:57

This episode discusses a lot of updates to our world! 

Hegseth quotes a fake bible verse

Iran has a new blockade

Melania refocuses on Epstein

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/04/first-lady-melania-trump-statement/


Swalwell and Gonzales resign over SA allegations


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SPEAKER_02

Hey everybody, this is the Only Dance Podcast. We want to thank you for tuning in on a Sunday, April 19th, about 10 a.m. Central Time. Uh we're gonna go over a few topics today. And if you're curious to see what that voice recording was from, that was from, as you know, Pope Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson. Why am I playing it? It's a good question. And I'll tell you why. Well, maybe because I don't know, our Secretary of Defense, known as the Secretary of War, Pete Hagsess, decided to quote that verse, which is actually not a verse at all. And uh he he quoted Pope Fiction. And I thought it was, you know, just uh it felt right to do that, and I wanted to start the podcast off. But we got a great show for you today, guys. Um Ricky, we're gonna be going over a few things. We're gonna hit on the Iran conflict, we're gonna hit on Melania Trump and her impromptu press conference, we're gonna hit on everything. But without further ado, I think we should begin with the conflict in Iran. Ricky, I'll let you take it away.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I think that everything's been about the same. Well, actually, the big stroke is the same. So we're still at war. Uh, there is this conflict over the Strait of Hermoose. Trump did something unique in that he sent battleships around the Horn of Africa, so all the way around uh the world, basically, from Okinawa, Japan to the Middle East. And his mentality was, I'm gonna block the strait. Now that may not make sense to you because it doesn't make sense to me. The the issue, a issue of the war is like, hey, the strait is blocked, we don't like that. Basically, it's a highway of ships, and we want those ships to get out. And we were arguing with Iran saying to open up the fucking strait, and so much so that he Trump threatened nuclear fucking war, right? Like he was saying, I'm gonna eliminate eliminate an entire civilization, his words, and then so now he's saying, Well, actually, we're gonna block the strait. So it's kind of unique. I think finally he's realizing that Iran has the upper hand because they are controlling who gets in and out of the strait and they're making money off of it. And the ships that are coming through are being paid or they are paying the toll in Chinese wan. Now we went over that last time about why that's important. So I think finally someone's like, hey man, like this is not good for us economically. This is gonna destroy our petrol dollar. You know, you're crippling our empire basically. And so Trump says, Well, if I can't make Iran open the strait, what I can do is set a blockade further down so that way now I'm in charge of that blockade, which theoretically isn't terrible, but I don't know how it's gonna end up. Um, but that's the current state of the strait, and there's current talks right now in Pakistan. Uh, there is a 10-day ceasefire uh during the time where they can like discuss things. I don't know the exact parameters of that ceasefire because there is conflict about what exactly it means. And when I say that, I mean America reached out to Iran and through Pakistan and said, Hey, we want this to be a ceasefire. Uh, Iran said okay. And then Iran said, Well, y'all violated the ceasefire terms by attacking Lebanon. And Israel said, No, that was never on the terms. America said it was supposed to be, but I guess it's not anymore because we're we're gonna listen to Israel. So you can see how complicated it is. Um, but finally Israel agreed and they stopped attacking Lebanon, and now there's a true ceasefire, at least for a little bit, and we're gonna see how it goes. So that's the current state.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because President Donald Trump said U.S. negotiations would be in Pakistan on Monday for round two of talks with Iran. Iran did not immediately confirm the talks. Trump threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if it doesn't take the deal that the U.S. is offering. The Strait of Hormuz is closed due to shipping due to threats from Iran as the U.S. blockade Iranian ports. It remained unclear whether either side has shifted their stance on unresolved issues that detailed, that derailed the last round of negotiations, including Iran's nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and control over the Strait of Himus. The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran is due to expire by Wednesday. A 10-day ceasefire in Israel and Lebanon appears to be holding. So that's just the latest on the Iran conflict. Uh, I know there's actually talk that I want to hit up, we're gonna hit on a future uh episode, is basically who stands to gain from these talks. Every time Trump sends out a tweet, whether it's him depicting himself as uh a deity, and that's a conversation in itself or what have you. But his weight, his voice carries a lot of weight, so much weight that it controls the markets and it moves in one way X amount of points. And there's maybe future bets that have been been placed before a certain announcement is made, or in ceasefire, because I was told I read that somewhere that there was um a bet placed about the oil going one way or another, then Trump not but 60 minutes later and uh announces a ceasefire. You know, things like that. You gotta follow the money. There's we're we'll talk about a future episode. But our next topic, uh guys, is Melania Trump had held an impromptu press conference where she came out and she said that she didn't know Jeffrey Epstein, they weren't good friends, and that people should believe her. And I was like, where did this come from? It came out of like left field for me because I didn't understand like what who who said what, when, where, and why. And it begs the question, you know, why did she come up there? And the best indication I got was maybe that was her trying to get ahead of a story, and because a story's about to break. So I'm looking forward to that story. I'm freaking trying to ascertain as to the reason behind it, but for the most part, we're back to F Jeffrey Epstein and the sex trafficking victims. So, Ricky Khan, what are your thoughts on Melania Trump having this impromptu press conference?

SPEAKER_00

Like you said, it was impromptu. And what what do you mean by that is Trump didn't even know it was happening. Trump was asked about it live during something else he was doing. He had no idea she planned this press conference. So that says a couple things. That says that they're not on the same page, that's important, right? That's the first lady. Um, but also, too, when it comes to this topic specifically, it's very toxic for Trump. So the fact that he didn't know his wife was going to be speaking on this subject specifically, that says a lot. Now you're right. I don't know what the hell, like, why? Why now? Um, you know, this administration is kind of uh, at least over the last month, I'd say it's kind of like flapping in the wind, right? Pam Bonnie was fired, uh Noam, uh Christy Noam was fired, and then you have uh the Iran uh war, and then you have you know stock markets going crazy, gas prices rising, so a lot of issues, and then all of a sudden now is whenever you want to bring back Epstein, people are starting to get uh distracted, right? And rightfully so, like Iran's a big deal, but you're right, like whenever this first happened, and and you know, even back whenever we kidnapped Maduro in Venezuela, we were like, this is just a distraction from Epstein, and so I think it shows two things. It shows one that the first lady and president isn't on the same page, which is a big deal, and two, it's not going anywhere, and that's fucking important because the American people deserve answers, and it's disgusting, and people are mad about it. And I like yeah, I don't know why. Maybe you're right, maybe she's trying to get ahead of a story. Maybe she maybe she's trying to like downplay it, like I like soft launching, I think is what they call it, right? They soft launch something where they just kind of like say a couple things and make it like normalize it. So maybe she's planning to sue somebody or something, and they're just like, Oh, this is our basis for it, but either way, it's interesting. Um, I listened to the speech, uh, it's very uh like it's very defensive. It's like I don't know Epstein, he wasn't my friend. I did, I did see him because we rolled around in the same social circles, but I was never kidnapped by him, I was never trafficked by him, I wasn't a victim of his because that's some of the conspiracy theories out there is that uh Trump was introduced to Melania by Epstein, and some go in so far as to say that Melania is his handler, so like there's lots of circulation uh of theories. Who knows what's true? Some should kind of get out of it, but I think ultimately it shows that Trump doesn't have control of his house, like of his own personal house.

SPEAKER_02

And we're gonna include this link to the uh White House, the first lady's Melania's Trump statement, but I'm gonna read it, I'm gonna wait from it a little bit. Okay, so it says here I've never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach. This rings of that cabinet official we went over who said they had no ties to Epstein and then it came out. They're like, Oh, well, actually, so to be clear, I've never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell categories cannot be categorized as anything other than more, anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn't amount to anything more than a trivial note. And we went over this in depth. The emails over Epstein, and you know, you follow the podcast, you'll see that in other episodes. But this is where I want to end on on this this topic. She says, she I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors. Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony. Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public. So, why'd I end on that topic for this specific one? Because that's what the Democrats have been asking for, and that's what the survivors have been asking for, is accountability. And they have it's fell it's fallen short. We haven't had that accountability. That's why Pam part of the reason why Pam Bounty was fired, because she couldn't bring that accountability, even though she ran on that. She said, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna go after these guys, but one of the guys is her boss, oh, we can't do that. And there has been zero accountability, and this is hopefully gonna spur action in Congress where there's gonna be some accountability, they're gonna have their day in court, so to speak. And I hope that's the case. I don't know if it will be, but we can only hope, we can only dream. Before we get on our next topic, Ricky, is anything you want to end on on that?

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I I would say everybody should watch the video, make up their mind for themselves, because it is kind of weird what she's doing. That's just what I think.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. So uh Ricky, what's our next topic?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so this is a weird one. This is gonna, it's gonna kind of come out of left field, but I need y'all to stay with me here. There's been an increase in reports of scientists, specifically nuclear scientists, going missing or being suicided, so killing themselves. Um, the reason why that's important is because at first it was like three or four, and no one really like said anything. It was just like, oh, that's kind of weird. We may have heard about it. There was that guy who came up with like some weird like fission kind of thing in MIT. He was like a nuclear physicist, and uh he it was like a big deal, and like three days later he was killed, and it was just like, oh, they got him, and everybody was kind of joking about it online, saying like he knew too much, but then it just kept happening with different scientists. So I want to give y'all like a theory, a couple crazy theories, just to kind of have fun with it. Not that this is a fun topic, but on one side of it, it's like it's pure coincidence, right? Like, I think we can all agree like people die all the time, but then on the other side of it, it's like, okay, well, how many fucking physicists are there in America? There's not very many, and how often do people die under suspicious circumstances? Also, not very much, right? People die typically, it's kind of open and shut, right? Like, if someone could you know is killed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, you would expect a gun to be there, maybe in his hand, you know, right next to him, and you know, bullet injury wound, whatever. Kind of like, okay, well, this guy killed himself, or he hanged himself or whatever. Like, there's not much like conflict around those, right? But here we have 10 nuclear physicists or physicists in general, that are all being killed within a short period of time, and a lot of them are under suspicious circumstances. And so, in my mind, the very far out theory is that the world is coming to an end, and the government is trying to capture as many people as they can to help them in their like post you know war life. Like, think about like paradise, right? Like, you know, if you're building an underground bunker, you're gonna start, you need all these people to help you out, right? But then you can't just ask them, like, you're gonna have to go basically and take them against their will, and then in their absence, you would say, like, well, he killed himself, and so like the government's collecting these people. Now, that's very crazy. I don't think that probably what's happening is some of these are actual victims of like real like death and like whatever. Some of them probably aren't. Maybe they're being kidnapped by other countries, right? So, right now we see Iran, and the big talk about the Iran uh conflict war is that they want to enrich uranium, and they want to enrich uranium because they see it as a way to be protected, to protect themselves, right? Kind of like having a gun in your house. And the United States doesn't want that because they say, well, if they have a gun in their house, they can shoot it at us. But if you look at history, it's one of the only ways to guarantee that America doesn't fuck with you. And you know, you look at North Korea. We don't fuck with North Korea. We have sanctions on them, sure, but like we don't go there, right? We don't we don't bomb them because they have a nuclear weapon. Same thing with China, same thing with Russia. So if you want, you know, and then who gave up their weapons? Um Libya. Uh, they gave up enriching uranium, and then Gaddafi was, you know, the pose a few years later, uh, Iraq never had nuclear weapons, you know. So if you are in the Middle East, the best way to control to take control of your own destiny, independent from American intervention, is to have a nuclear weapon. That's why they want it. Now, America's gonna say, well, they want it because they want to attack us. Is that true? I don't know. Uh better for mine for me, but it's not crazy to think that Iran is talking to China and saying, hey, we need nuclear scientists because America's killing our guys. And China would say, okay, we're gonna go kidnap some American scientists. And now they're in some bunker somewhere working for Iran. That's probably that's more likely what I think. Because I think that stuff happens all the time. So that's kind of the broad thing. Rafa, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think you should always follow the breadcrumbs of, you know, somebody starts disappearing, a certain group of people starts disappearing, there's a pattern that starts recognizing, then you should follow that pattern, and then the chips are gonna fall where they lie. And, you know, if it's coincidental, I think that's where reporting comes in and breaking news, and that's why we should support independent journalists because who knows where the story leads. But you heard it here first one on guys podcast. Our next topic is Congressman Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez announced they will resign from their seats in the House of Representatives following high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct. The House Ethics Committee announced earlier in the day that it launched an investigation in Democratic Congressman Salwell after reported allegations of inappropriate behavior, sexual assault, and rape. Over the weekend, Swalwell ended his bid for California governor amid the accusations against him. Later in the day, Gonzalez, a Republican from Texas, announced he will file paperwork to retire amid growing calls for his expulsion after he acknowledged having an extramarital affair with the staffer who later died by suicide. This guy, Gonzalez, we've known about this for months. And Stafford killed herself over it because, oh, he like she was lying, you know, she done all these things, and then there was no accountability. The Republicans weren't holding him his feet to the fire. But when we found out about Swalwell, literally in the course of over a free day, a few days, he resigned. That's what accountability looks like. That's what truth and justice looks like. It moves fast, it doesn't move late. And the only reason why Tony Gonzalez had to end up, because it's not now, we've known congressmen from both sides to you know have egg on their face, you know, hypocritical. But the Democrats, I would say, definitely have a sway because they hold their feet to the fire and they talk the talk and they walk the walk. When Al Franken uh he he he resigned over the allegation, he he resigned. I don't know, mess said maybe agree with that, but he did it. And because when you become the distraction, then you have to, you know, probably step move around because then all the talk's gonna be around that. Now, that in itself, we can talk about another day, but one thing I did want to mention on the Zet, they both resigned, and I think that was a good thing. Ricky, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00

Uh so I learned a little bit going into this was Swalwell's running for governor, he's a Democrat right now, he's going for governor, apparently because Newsom can't run for governor again. I didn't know that. I didn't know that uh their governor was limited by terms, which I guess makes sense. Um, but I think what it shows is that, like you said, the Republican Party was dragging their feet on Gonzalez. Why? Because they were hoping it was gonna go into the radar, it wasn't gonna be an issue. But then also you're the party in power, right? So when you're in power, you really don't have to have accountability because who's gonna who's gonna call the votes? You know, you know what I mean? Like you can't really you don't need to. So it's so it makes sense in the Democratic Party. This is a very um, what's the word I'm looking for? Like not vulnerable, like a very important time for the Democratic Party, right? It's very fragile. That's what I'm trying to say. It's fragile. If they fuck this up, they're gonna lose the potential for future uh majority, right? And I think the party leadership knows that. And they say we cannot have any fuck ups right now, right? This is very specific time, the midterms are right around the corner. We cannot fuck up, and especially with the fervor around Epstein, anything related to misconduct, especially of the sexual nature, is gonna draw bad attention. So as soon as Swalwell had these allegations, they said, Hey, buddy, I truly think someone sat down with them. I don't think it was his decision. I think someone from the you know leadership sat down with him and said, Hey, we don't need this shit on us. If you want to run again eventually, fine, handle this shit on your own. These could just be allegations, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Take it to court, but right now you don't get to be strong because he definitely wasn't gonna resign. And then it wasn't until someone in leadership, I'm I'm absolutely certain that they strong armed him. Hey, buddy, listen, if you don't, we're gonna expel you, we're gonna put a whole vote on the floor and we're gonna and you're gonna resign in disgrace. We're gonna basically boot you out. So save a modicum of your self-respect and resign.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. And I think it's a good thing, you know. The only way this doesn't work out for him is if it if if he's guilty of the stuff, right? And if he's guilty of the stuff, then you shouldn't be in there, right? Period. Now, on the on Tony Gonzalez, you're right, man. We they've been talking about this for months, it's going on. The staffer, for those of you that don't know, he was having an inappropriate relationship with the staffer. And from my understanding, I don't, you know, Rafa knows more than me, but the staffer is just like a helper around the office, right? Like they don't have like an official title, maybe they get paid, maybe they don't. They're certainly educated, but they're not a representative capacity. They just kind of like you know, I guess help. Uh do you know what a staff?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know what a staffer does, but yeah, so I think they're on the payroll. Uh, and I think you know, help him schedule his meetings and take calls and that.

SPEAKER_00

So you could see the power dynamic there. You know what I mean? You have an actual representative, and then you have someone that's beholden underneath them, and then that person is the one that's bringing up these claims of sexual misconduct. I saw some of the messages. Uh, I'm not gonna say they were too crazy, but they were certainly crazy when you take it into context of this guy's a representative, he's married, and she's under him. So in the army, you know, you would have soldiers underneath you. You don't fucking fraternize with those soldiers because that is horrible. Like that, you they you are in a position of power over them, you don't abuse that authority. And you know, this is similar to like a professor, right, sleeping with a team with a student or a boss sleeping with the secretary, right? Like, these are not things you're supposed to do. Power dynamics exactly that power dynamic, and then she, I want to say she was married too, and she ended up killing herself. And not only did she end up killing herself, she killed herself by self-immolation, which is setting yourself on fucking fire. So, like, she was trying to set a fucking example. Something was going on, exactly. There's lots of mental issues there on both sides, and he came out of this squeaky clean, just like, oh, shit happens. No, the fuck it doesn't. You made it happen, you deserve to resign, get the fuck out of office. But yeah, they dragged their feet until until the Democratic Party kind of said, Hey, look, this is what we do. Republicans, what do y'all do? Y'all protect them. They already have the egg on their face of being protectors of Epstein. So I think that was uh Swall, but like you said, definitely they would not have forced Gonzalez to do it if Swall hadn't done it already.

SPEAKER_02

So and I will I'll say two things. Uh, this is our last topic, guys. Uh P Ket Seth, always ready to get medieval when he quoted that name. Was that he did this in front of a prayer? Uh the prayer at the Pentagon on a Wednesday. I guess that's a thing. I don't know. It's weird. But the theme of today's topic was you know accountability, essay allegations. And it brings me reminiscent of uh when uh Supreme Court justice is vetted, they go before Congress and they everybody has their day to court. And what reminded me is Anita Hill, which was a law professor and former aide, accused then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in '91. And during televised city hearing, she alleged Thomas made graphic sexual remarks while she worked for him at the EEOC. Thomas denied the allegations, which triggered a major national care conversation on harassment. And why I think I bring that up is because you know, it seems like Congress and Washington in general has this history of sexual assault. And it's it's you know, it's nasty, it's disgusting. It's you know, when is there gonna be, you know, I don't know what the word I'm looking for. Basically, there's there has to be accountability, and there there has to be uh some form where people can come forward without fear for their job. That's why we have the Whistleblower Act. And Congress, you know, a lot of these things don't get reported because they they basically pay off. This they can pay them off, and a lot of taxpayer money goes into this. And then Texas is no different. Like we've we've heard calls of representatives. I think that's what Paxton and his situation with his wife, and I think that's I think they filed for divorce. But there has to be accountability, and everybody should deserve their day in court. And it just reminiscent of Anita Hill, and I wanted to end with her just because you know, I don't think it's I think people should be to take them at their work and an investigation. It shouldn't be, you know, guilty until proven innocent. It should be it should be innocent until proven guilty, but you need to go through those, you need to go through them, and you should be you should feel empowered. We should try to help you come out to the forefront. But uh Ricky, what are your last words, man?

SPEAKER_00

So I'm just piggyback off what you said. You know, these people that they're they're servants to us, we're the public, right? We're not putting them in jail. So we can put different rules. If we take the accusations at face value, we're not gonna say that they're guilty, that they're gonna be put in jail. That's a criminal system. Like, let that get figured out. All we're saying is, hey, maybe you shouldn't have the opportunity, the you know, to represent us is what I'm saying. So like I think it's okay to have a higher standard for those people because at the end of the day, they are the ones that are making democracy happen. And we don't want someone because a lot, a lot of times, sexual misconduct, you know, instances of rape, that comes from like this weird struggle for power internally, right? Like you when you're like psychic psychopaths and stuff. It's never really about the sexual gratification, it's a lot of times about the power dynamic. And so if you have someone like that in positions of power, do you think they're gonna fucking abuse their power? Absolutely. Get them the fuck out. They don't have a right to represent us, they have the privilege to represent us, and we can determine what rules we want to go along with those privileges. And if they don't like it, guess what? Go to the private sector, buddy. Go get a regular job, go get a regular nine to five, get the fuck out of public office.

SPEAKER_02

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