Automated Transcript
Ivan:
[0:00]
| All right okay ready okay.
|
Sam:
[0:03]
| Shall uh shall we just uh go then yeah okay here it comes love Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, July 5th, 2025. It's just after 16 UTC as we're starting to record. I'm Sam Inter, Yvonne Bowes here. Hello, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[0:45]
| Hi. You know, we were supposed to do this together this week. That was my plan.
|
Sam:
[0:54]
| We had thought about doing this in person, like right before or right after the meetup or something. But unfortunately, yes, what happened, Yvonne?
|
Ivan:
[1:03]
| Uh, I will say that now, with all the facts in front of me, after what happened, it's clearly my fault.
|
Sam:
[1:16]
| Oh, no. What happened?
|
Ivan:
[1:17]
| Well, sometime late last year, during one of our last trips, I had noticed that Manu's and anybody on YouTube can see, use the Solo Beats headphones that he had gotten many years ago. And I say he had gotten because he had gotten to be, as my son closes the door on me because I'm bothering him, You know, he liked to travel, but he liked to use his iPad, and you can't really be traveling on an airplane without the headphones, okay?
|
Sam:
[1:56]
| For the sound on the iPad.
|
Ivan:
[1:57]
| Right, exactly. And so, you know, it bothers the other passengers. It's actually, you know, they do have, you know, some rules related to that that said, you know, on the airlines that you can't, you know, just be blasting stuff, okay?
|
Sam:
[2:11]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[2:11]
| So, you know, I was like trying to get him to use headphones. I'd been struggling to get him to use headphones. Part of the reason is that my son, who has autism, doesn't have a lot of sensory issues. But the one that he has is stuff. No, no, no. Stuff touching his earlobes or ear.
|
Sam:
[2:38]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[2:39]
| It's not the sound. He has no problem with the sound. Blast music all you want. Go to a party, whatever. It's the actual physical sensation against the ear itself, which also manifests itself as we had struggled to get him to learn to swim. Because any time that one of the parts about learning to swim is to dunk your head underwater, that was always something excruciating for him. Okay? Always was a problem. We've gotten to learn to swim. And, you know, the thing is that the biggest thing about him learning to swim wasn't, hey, I don't want him to be a competition swimmer. I just want to make sure that if he falls in the water, since we have so much in Florida, that he can get out.
|
Sam:
[3:24]
| Right. It would be safe.
|
Ivan:
[3:26]
| Yes. And that was the main goal. As he learned to swim, basically his entire thing, you could see that his main mission was to keep his head above the water itself. which is.
|
Sam:
[3:37]
| Which is a reasonable.
|
Ivan:
[3:38]
| Mission which is a reasonable thing by the way when you're swimming as well by the way okay you know so that's not exactly that bad but it also manifested itself with headphones where he had been refusing to you know he had been but one day like years ago as i'm trying to get him to shop for headphones that actually was at the apple store about something else they'd been doing a demo of the the solo beats headphones and he went and ambled over to the table where they were doing the demo of this music app and whatnot and handing out people headphones. And lo and behold, he grabbed the headphones and he put them on and he put them on and he stayed there playing and listen, you know, watching the demonstration for a while. And I'm like, OK, how much are these three hundred something dollars sold? OK, I was like, I don't care what the fuck's the price I had. But I had been struggling to get him to wear any headphones up until then. I'm like, you know, they could have literally the guy could have told me, oh, it's $1,500. And I would have been like, okay, fine. Pack them up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so, you know, we got those and he's used them now for a long time. The, the, the problem is that I had noticed one of the last trips is that the, the, the cushions had started to break and flake.
|
Sam:
[4:58]
| Yeah, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[5:00]
| So, I was like, look, I'll just get them new headphones. All right? So, I got them these that are beat solo, but they're not, they actually are very different. Okay?
|
Sam:
[5:13]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[5:13]
| The cushions are not, they are really different.
|
Sam:
[5:17]
| It's like a new model or something. So, they changed a bunch of stuff.
|
Ivan:
[5:22]
| All right. Well, look, I didn't realize this.
|
Sam:
[5:25]
| And so, they weren't his headphones.
|
Ivan:
[5:26]
| So I didn't realize this was an, I didn't think that this was an issue because I had actually, when I got on them, I, I, I, I, he, he had them in his desk. I think he warmed for a little bit. And then I was like, ah, it's fine. Well, look, well, we're heading to the airport. Well, we had left for the airport very early. He got very sad and he started complaining about the headphones on the way to the airport. So I decided to try to go back to get the, all right, go get the white headphones.
|
Sam:
[5:54]
| The right headphones. At least you hadn't thrown them away. No, no.
|
Ivan:
[5:57]
| I hadn't thrown them away. Which, yeah, I mean, I had thought about that, but no, I did not. So, well, actually, we had forgotten about three things. We had forgotten the... Well, he... First, he said about the headphones, and I'm like, no, no, no, we got the new headphones. No, we won't. And then he realized he didn't put on his Apple Watch. Now, was more important because look if he gets lost like you can find him and i'm like you know he doesn't like carrying his phone in his pocket it really like you know and i'm like fuck no we need to go and but we left early enough that we could do this and then my wife forgot this little thing for emotion sickness that she uses as well i'm like fuck well well that's the reason we'd been ready very early. We had left super early. We could turn around. We can get all this shit. Okay?
|
Ivan:
[6:54]
| But the moment that we got on the plane, because the last time we flew at night, we wound up being downgraded into coach on this airplane in an overnight flight. And I must admit that Manu got really tired and cranky near the end of that flight when we were coming from the West Coast. So I said, well, let's not do that again. And I splurged, I bumped us into first class, you know, because they wouldn't give me a free upgrade because there's only like, they'll only give you like, for example, like me and a companion. But if it's three of you, no. No, we're not going to give you three upgrades. Okay? We'll give you two. But the problem is if you're in a group of three, they won't even put you on the upgrade list. So I have to pay. I'm like, look, I'll pay for the damn upgrade. Just put us, you know, I don't want to deal with this. It's a flight that leaves at eight o'clock. It's going to get there at local time over here to something in the morning. You know, you know, it's let's just, you know. So we sit down and Manu starts after a little bit, starts getting really nervous about these headphones being around. He doesn't want it because I said, well, look, you'll use you'll use the white horse a little bit and you'll try the blue ones. I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. I need to. I'm afraid. I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane.
|
Ivan:
[8:22]
| This was right after we boarded. We had sat down. We had had to. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[8:25]
| Right, right, right, right. But even though you got the headphones you want, it was because you still had the other ones? Because you might make him use them.
|
Ivan:
[8:33]
| Yes. And I hadn't really thought that it was that bad. The thing is that at the moment, he wasn't saying it was about the headphones.
|
Sam:
[8:42]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[8:43]
| He just said, I'm afraid. I need to get off this plane. I'm scared. Crew tried to settle him down. Captain tried to settle him down. Had him sit down in the cockpit and everything. And, but look, he went out on the jetway and he was like, no. And, you know, we tried, my wife tried arguing with him. She didn't understand what the hell was going on because I was the one that was sitting right beside him. But I could see how, look, how afraid and how upset he was. And I told her, look, man, we're not going anywhere. This is not happening. This is just not happening. And so, you know, so we, customer service agent came up and asked, so what's the deal? What are we doing? I'm not going. So I walked back out and thankfully American, well, given that I'm a good customer, went and they canceled the, canceled the, canceled my segments. And if you cancel them right before departure, then you get your trip credit. You get everything back as a trip credit. So I did not lose any of that. And I did manage to call Marriott. And also, even though I was well past the cancellation, they did cancel the hotel in Seattle and everything. So Manu, it took a while for him to calm down from this because, well, in part, he was very upset with himself that he didn't fly because he likes to fly.
|
Sam:
[10:06]
| Right. But the one good thing out of this story is you have determined that it is not a permanent fear of flying. Because, you know, I know that was a concern when this started.
|
Ivan:
[10:20]
| But no, it's not a fear of flying. He was actually very upset that he couldn't fly. He was very hard on himself later. I made a mistake. He was being super hard on himself. Then after he calmed down and they explained to me, I said, Manu, is it just about, was it just because of the headphones? Yes. So, well, okay, so good news. So I'm working. One of the things about this is that in order for many of these things with him, and this is for anybody, you know, a child with autism, in order to condition him to these things, One of the things that you do is you try to condition them to the device or whatever, taking some time in order for them to get used to it with some time. And so I'm working on that right now with him where he is actually. And I think he may have gotten not used to not. I don't know. He's really very fond of these headphones. So first thing is I did manage. Well, a friend of mine actually managed to find where they sell the little cushion replacements.
|
Ivan:
[11:23]
| So I'm getting those because these headphones are actually fine. It's just the cushions.
|
Ivan:
[11:29]
| So I managed to see a place where they sell those. And then what we're working is on some just conditioning where he is using them for a few minutes every day. He is touching the blue ones every day. He's working on them, which is something that I've done before with other things. And over time, he gets used to it and that fear goes away. But it does take time to do that. And I have not done that with the I didn't really think that the thing is that with Manu, it's so rare that he it that he gets like that over things that I just you know what? Didn't think about it. and so um so that goes on me because i should have known given how difficult it was for him to use headphones in the first place that's just changing out the headphones but but again you know i don't know man i got him a new tv i got him a new computer i got this stuff none of that was a big deal and he was fine yes right you know fine even for the most part you know It's like, but, but, but the thing is that he is really, you know, he has very few sensory issues, but the one that he does have that he's always had is related to the ears. And so it's something that you need to, you know.
|
Ivan:
[12:57]
| You know, us parents with children with autism are things that you have to be cognizant of these things and to deal with them in the best way possible. The one way that I've done this before with other items that Manu was scared of, there's a few items that he was scared of, like the hair trimmer. So I basically bought a hair trimmer and I left it in his room until he stopped being scared of it, around it. And then I started just trimming his hair a little bit at home and he would let me do it and he would touch it 30 seconds or whatever. But over time, over months, months and months, now he's like comfortable with a trimmer. or the hair or nail clippers for some reason. That's also one that he was scared of. Same thing. So, but it's, it's the, it's the little things that you have to have a tactic to, uh, to deal with.
|
Ivan:
[13:56]
| So bottom line, what my wife, She's in Vancouver. Look, she was going to an event. She was going to a convention in Vancouver. We were going, you know, the whole thing, my idea was, hey, well, Seattle and Vancouver are relatively close. Why don't I go to Seattle for a little bit, see Sam, we drive up, had a rental car, go to Vancouver, and then fly back from Vancouver. Well, I managed because I did get our tickets refunded and whatever and whatnot. Well, I put her on a plane to Vancouver on Thursday because one thing is that I wasn't sure. Now, Manu has promised me right now that if I fix the white headphones, he will get back on an airplane.
|
Sam:
[14:33]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[14:33]
| He said that's no problem and actually has been asking, where can we go? And I'm like, look, we're not going to go right now. I do have the flight credits. I have tickets paid for. So it's not like it's that big a deal. It's not the money. I got paid for tickets. So I just, you know.
|
Sam:
[14:47]
| But this was the time you had set.
|
Ivan:
[14:48]
| This was the time we had set. Exactly. That's the problem. Okay. This is the time that we had set. So, you know, I might take him with me on one of my next business trips. This is summer. I'll just, I just might take him with him. And since I got family, I got to go to Puerto Rico. Because I have family. I'll talk to my aunt and say, hey, can you, you know, if I got to go to a business meeting, go watch, watch Manu. Will I have to go to a meeting or something or whatever? I could probably figure out who, who can mine Manu. Will I, will I do some work? So that, that may be my, my next experiment. But anyway, it's my fault. we're not there. I messed up. And so, uh, okay.
|
Sam:
[15:27]
| Well, and so sorry to the people who said they wanted to meet us for the curmudgeon's corner meetup. Maybe some other time we'll see.
|
Ivan:
[15:34]
| Oh, I think Manu wants to, Manu didn't want to go to Seattle. So I don't know, probably have to figure out to speak.
|
Sam:
[15:42]
| Someday, someday, you know? Yeah. So, and we did have a couple of people who were going to show up. Yes.
|
Ivan:
[15:50]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[15:50]
| Anyway. Okay, I have a story. I have a story, too. So I'm actually going to dispense with the movies and books and stuff.
|
Ivan:
[15:58]
| We're dispensing.
|
Sam:
[15:59]
| I've been doing two a week for a few weeks. So, you know, we will dispense with those and I will tell a story instead. And, you know, look, yeah, okay. So and then we'll see, like, there is newsy stuff to talk about. I'm not going to worry too much. We can squeeze that to the end of the show. It's fine.
|
Ivan:
[16:18]
| I mean, the world is, you know, fucked up. News summary. Our country is fucked up. The world is fucked up. Okay, here you go. News summary. Next.
|
Sam:
[16:29]
| Okay, there you go. Okay, I'll tell my story. So last weekend, and this was happening probably not, well, it overlapped with the story you just told. So it was Sunday last weekend. So Brandy was going to go to one of like a pride parade in Seattle. Okay. So she was going to go and participate and help like carry the flag and do some stuff, meet some friends, do whatever. And so she didn't want to drive there because, you know, it was like a one-way parade. You know, you start in one place and you go like two miles and you end up somewhere else. She didn't want to walk back to get to the car, blah, blah, blah. all kinds of things. So the plan was that I would drop her up, drop her off, and then pick her up like late. Right. So I went to, so I drove her into Seattle. I dropped her off near the start of the parade route. And of course it gets crowded as you get close. So it didn't get quite as close to it as I wanted to, but I dropped her off and she went in. So I started to go home and And I went a little ways towards home. Car started overheating.
|
Ivan:
[17:40]
| Oh, boy.
|
Sam:
[17:42]
| Yes. Car started overheating. Now, wait.
|
Ivan:
[17:45]
| Which car? We're driving your car.
|
Sam:
[17:47]
| I was driving my.
|
Ivan:
[17:48]
| Which is a Subaru.
|
Sam:
[17:50]
| It's a 2012 Subaru in front.
|
Ivan:
[17:53]
| 2012 Subaru. How many miles on this thing?
|
Sam:
[17:56]
| Like 151,000.
|
Ivan:
[17:58]
| Ah, well, okay. Here, so from what I know.
|
Sam:
[18:05]
| I have a lot of story left to go.
|
Ivan:
[18:07]
| Well, here is. Okay, so based on the information you've told me, these Subarus of that vintage have issues specifically around head gaskets that cause coolant loss, that cause overheating. It's been a well-known thing.
|
Sam:
[18:28]
| Okay. Well, we'll see if we get there. So good prediction. We will, I will tell the rest of the story and then we will see if you are right. Okay. So first thing I do is I'm like, I, this happened. It started overheating right before I was going to get on the highway.
|
Ivan:
[18:48]
| Oh shit.
|
Sam:
[18:49]
| So so i say i'm not gonna get no highway no no i i say i'm not gonna get on the highway and so i i i pass the exit to the highway and i'm looking for like a parking lot i can pull over into or something like that um but the light goes out it looks like it's happy again i'm like okay well maybe it was something transient even for those of you who can't see Yvonne is shaking no no no no no so so you started you.
|
Ivan:
[19:32]
| Started wishful thinking.
|
Sam:
[19:33]
| I started I started wishful thinking i did a big like 10 i i i did a big loop around the light didn't go on for like 10 minutes i'm like okay i'll i'll get on the highway so you went 10 minutes which you could have used on the highway better i could have yes although where i was like it took a while to get back it's not like it's not like the highway.
|
Ivan:
[20:00]
| Okay and it depends on what the failure is.
|
Sam:
[20:02]
| You've got more cooling because of the air flow. Yes. Okay. So anyway, I got on the highway, And the first thing I'm doing is I'm from, because of where I was in the route home, I was crossing the lake from Washington, from Seattle, Washington to Bellevue, Washington. So I was on like bridges and stuff. So I'm like on the bridge going across and I'm about halfway through and it starts like shuddering, starts going shuddering. No, it doesn't. What does it do? It's just the light.
|
Ivan:
[20:32]
| It's just the lights.
|
Sam:
[20:33]
| It's just the lights, just the lights blinking on the dashboard. I have no other signs of this. Like there's no like.
|
Ivan:
[20:39]
| Okay, but the light came back on.
|
Sam:
[20:43]
| The light came back on, and not only that, it started blinking between the red light. Oh, man. Which indicates not only is it hot, but the fluid levels are low. Okay? So I managed to get off the bridge.
|
Ivan:
[20:59]
| Park?
|
Sam:
[20:59]
| I pull over. I find some place to park. It's actually near where we used to live before we moved to Africa.
|
Ivan:
[21:07]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[21:08]
| So I knew the area. OK, it's in Bellevue, Washington, for anybody who near here, it's like the Factoria Mall. I ended up at parked like near the Factoria Mall. Actually, the first thing I saw was a Jiffy Lube and I pulled into the damn Jiffy Lube just in case I'm like, OK, am I just out of fluids? They were closed. So it didn't matter. But so I ended up at a parking lot at the mall. And so no, a gas station. I went I went to a gas station next.
|
Ivan:
[21:37]
| Triple A.
|
Sam:
[21:38]
| I'm like. Well, first, I'm like, you know, maybe I just have to, like, fill up the radiator or whatever. Fill up the core. Yvonne's shaking his head again.
|
Ivan:
[21:46]
| Oh, God, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Another no, no, no, no.
|
Sam:
[21:54]
| Oh, you'll love the rest of us.
|
Ivan:
[21:56]
| Oh, God, no.
|
Sam:
[21:57]
| We're not even close to the end.
|
Ivan:
[21:58]
| Oh, jeez, okay.
|
Sam:
[22:01]
| So, first of all, I am like, you know, hey, I could just call AAA. Yes, yes.
|
Ivan:
[22:08]
| Yes. Yes.
|
Sam:
[22:10]
| But no, I'm like, I'm at the gas station and they have some coolant. Like I, I, I, like, you know, I, I, I, you know, wait for everything to cool down.
|
Ivan:
[22:20]
| Okay. You didn't wait. Okay. Good. All right. At least you didn't do that.
|
Sam:
[22:23]
| I didn't open it and have it explode in my face. I'm not in the hospital.
|
Ivan:
[22:27]
| Okay. All right.
|
Sam:
[22:28]
| Good.
|
Ivan:
[22:28]
| Okay. Well, you're going to have the scary episode without being in the hospital, you know, as some people have, but okay. All right. So you didn't wait for it to cool down.
|
Sam:
[22:39]
| I did wait for it to cool down. I added coolant. I read the whole thing. I waited. I, you know, I was looking up instructions on the internet on how long I should wait and what kind I should put in and all this kind of stuff. Cause of course I don't know. Cause yeah, I'm not a car person at all, but I'm looking up the, like what, what, what I should add, how much I should add, how long I should wait.
|
Ivan:
[22:59]
| So the number one thing that these people didn't tell you is like, Hey, you know what? This adding coolant thing doesn't really work. You really should just, you know, at this moment, we should just quit. None of these idiots on the fucking internet said this because that is the, you know, this is the thing that pisses me off about the fucking internet. The first thing they should have told you is, hey, you know what? Guess what? If you're at this situation, just quit while you're ahead. Don't do anything. Because if your car is low on coolant so quickly, something else is majorly wrong.
|
Sam:
[23:36]
| Right. Okay. So. After waiting the appropriate time, I try to drive again.
|
Ivan:
[23:42]
| Uh-huh.
|
Sam:
[23:43]
| So I make it, it goes like, I don't know, five minutes, less than five minutes. And then it starts overheating again.
|
Ivan:
[23:52]
| Of course.
|
Sam:
[23:54]
| So, and then I'll leave out a couple steps here because there were some, you know, start and stop. But I ended up in the parking lot of the Factoria Mall. and, you know, I popped a hood, you know, ready to look again, ready to add more fluids. You know, because I hadn't...
|
Ivan:
[24:12]
| You did not.
|
Sam:
[24:13]
| I hadn't filled it.
|
Ivan:
[24:14]
| Oh, you hadn't filled it.
|
Sam:
[24:15]
| I'd add, I added some, but I bought like one gallon and it hadn't filled it entirely. So I'm like, okay, maybe I need to add more. And so I went and bought like two more gallons.
|
Ivan:
[24:26]
| Did you look to see if it was leaking?
|
Sam:
[24:28]
| There was nothing visible under the car.
|
Ivan:
[24:30]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[24:31]
| Like there was not like a pool of stuff. Other than when I poured, like, the fluid and mist.
|
Ivan:
[24:38]
| Yeah, of course. Yeah, that does.
|
Sam:
[24:39]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[24:40]
| I mean, yeah.
|
Sam:
[24:41]
| Because, of course, the first time I did this, I didn't get a follow or anything.
|
Ivan:
[24:45]
| Show, Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. That's standard operating procedure. Yes, okay. All right, good. All right. I'm glad.
|
Sam:
[24:52]
| Okay, so this time when I opened it, I noticed a very visible large hole in one of the radiator pipes. well that like it was a big big like okay so.
|
Ivan:
[25:06]
| So so so what are the what are radiator hoses popped.
|
Sam:
[25:10]
| Yes not good yes not good, so then again again skipping again skipping a few steps because there were other thought processes and things that were going but and don't get me started on why this even like, crossed my mind what.
|
Ivan:
[25:35]
| Crossed your mind good lord.
|
Sam:
[25:37]
| I was within sight of an auto parts store so i'm like this looks easy i'll just get the hose.
|
Ivan:
[25:45]
| Oh, my God. No.
|
Sam:
[25:47]
| Yvonne is holding his head in his hands.
|
Ivan:
[25:53]
| What raging thoughts of delusion were crossing through your head?
|
Sam:
[25:57]
| Well, first I was going to duct tape the hole. First I was going to duct tape the hole. You know what?
|
Ivan:
[26:03]
| That actually would have been probably a better idea. Given your skill set, probably would have been a better idea.
|
Sam:
[26:14]
| So i bought the right hose i bought an a the wrench they told me i needed oh.
|
Ivan:
[26:19]
| God these guys.
|
Sam:
[26:20]
| At the auto.
|
Ivan:
[26:21]
| Parts store are also a bunch of fucking idiots i'm like they're not looking at this guy do you even know what you're doing sir should be the first thing.
|
Sam:
[26:33]
| So i i got the old hose off in like 30 seconds i started putting the the new one on i i got the new one in place but the the the sort of friction brackets they had the tool they'd given me could not get them open enough to get over the hose to clamp it properly okay so these are the kinds of brackets by the way where it's not the kind with the little screw it's the kind that are like tension so they like they close out you have to like pull them open with a lot of force and then So these hose clamps were not like.
|
Ivan:
[27:11]
| They're not the ones that you tighten with a screw. These are actually tension ones. Okay. All right. Got it.
|
Sam:
[27:17]
| Yes. Yes. Okay. And the wrench they gave me just kept slipping. It just could not produce enough force. It kept slipping. So after like trying this for like an hour, maybe more, I went back to the auto parts store and I was like, you know, this wrench is not doing the thing. and and so they they gave me they they exchanged it they exchanged the wrench they gave me a better more expensive wrench okay and at this point also this is a crucial thing they said you know it might be good also just get you know just get new of the clamps but they didn't have the right kind, They didn't have the right kind. They only had the screw kind. And they mentioned that, but the screw kind isn't recommended for this because it can't really handle the pressure. They'll come loose. They will come loose over time.
|
Ivan:
[28:15]
| It can't handle the pressure.
|
Sam:
[28:16]
| Yeah, so like, now, here's the thing. I was never intending to make a permanent repair. I just wanted to get the thing so I could drive it to the shop instead of calling AAA.
|
Ivan:
[28:27]
| Which by the way this is the thing about your explanation why does this make sense, since all you're trying to do is to get into the fucking shop why the hell did you just have a toad to the fucking shop which you're already paying for triple a so it is free and then just take an uber home well.
|
Sam:
[28:48]
| Well in part because by this point i'd already done half i i'd taken off the old hose. I'm like, oh, this would be embarrassing.
|
Ivan:
[29:00]
| This is what we're concerned about. Oh, okay. All right. This will be embarrassing at this point. Okay.
|
Sam:
[29:06]
| You know, because I've done a half-ass bad repair.
|
Ivan:
[29:10]
| So, you know, you just don't want to look like a, you know, like an idiot. Oh, okay. All right. That's our biggest concern at this point. Okay.
|
Sam:
[29:19]
| Right. So, anyway, so I take, oh, and so they had the screw ones that I, they were on the thing. I had them there and the, but because they were like, ah, these aren't good for this though. I'm like, okay, I'll just get the wrench. I'm not going to get the, the screw things and I'll go back. And, and they're, and they're, they're very friendly. They're very nice. They're like, if this doesn't work, come right back. Okay. But I went.
|
Ivan:
[29:48]
| And so what's i you know what time of the day is this by now okay.
|
Sam:
[29:53]
| Well this whole thing started probably around.
|
Ivan:
[30:00]
| One one o'clock in the afternoon.
|
Sam:
[30:02]
| But by this time it was like five.
|
Ivan:
[30:05]
| Holy shit we've been at this already for four or five hours yeah so wait okay so by the way what's what's brandy doing at this point you know brandy's still like okay brandy's still at the parade okay fine Why? Okay. And you haven't told her anything about this.
|
Sam:
[30:22]
| No, no, no. I've been in constant communication.
|
Ivan:
[30:24]
| Oh, no. She knows. So she knows. Okay. All right. Fine.
|
Sam:
[30:27]
| She knows. She knows. She knows all this is going on. And yeah. And, you know, there are a few places I said I skipped stuff. Like before I went to the auto parts star, I like went to like the target that was also in to see if I could get duct tape or see if I could get other things. And then I then I realized, okay, that's not going to do it. So then I looked, you know, is there an auto parts near store nearby? And it was like right across the street from where I'd park. So I was like, OK, I'll go over there, you know. Anyway, I'd left out a bunch of steps and walking back and forth and doing things. And at one point, you know, I was I was trying again, adding more fluid, but I needed to let it cool down again. So I went and had lunch at the mall, you know.
|
Ivan:
[31:08]
| So one of the few sensible things that you did, which is like at some point, you know, why don't I have lunch? I actually think that that was one of the few sensible things I've heard so far. Yes.
|
Sam:
[31:21]
| So, anyway, with this new wrench, I got much, much further. I got one end of the hose basically on.
|
Ivan:
[31:36]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[31:36]
| I could tell it wasn't quite where it was supposed to be, but it was secure enough that I could not remove it by pulling it with my hand.
|
Ivan:
[31:45]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[31:47]
| Yeah, basically, if you know how these things work, there's a little lip where you stick the hose onto a metal part, and there's a little lip on that. You have to get over the lip, and then you clamp it on the other side of the lip so it can't pull off. Okay? And on the one end, I got it so the clamp was on the lip.
|
Ivan:
[32:08]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[32:08]
| Not past the lip, but on the lip.
|
Ivan:
[32:10]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[32:11]
| So it wasn't, I knew it wasn't how it was supposed to be. but it seemed okay. Okay. The other side for the life of me, I could not get on.
|
Ivan:
[32:22]
| No, boy.
|
Sam:
[32:23]
| I could not, I could not get it over the lip. Okay. And so I, I tried and I tried and I kept going over and over and over again. Like I could, I could get the clamp on, I could get the hose on where it's supposed to be, but I could not get the clamp into position over where it is. And part of what this apparently is, as I have learned subsequently, the OEM parts, well, the non OEM parts, like the kind I got from the auto parts store, are slightly thicker and slightly stiffer than the name brand parts that you would have gotten from the factory. So they are harder to get on. You know, like basically the hose was just slightly too thick for me to get it over the lump. And like, I am sure an experienced technician with all the right tools and stuff.
|
Ivan:
[33:21]
| Yeah, they could have gotten it on. Right. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[33:25]
| They could have gotten it on, but I could not fully. So, of course, the first thing I do is I try, I get it on as best I can. And I'm like, okay, I'll give this a shot. It's the best I can. I've been trying for hours. Yeah. I'm going to, I'll drive around the mall parking lot for a couple minutes, see if it seems like it's going, and then start going. So I drive around the mall parking lot a couple minutes. It's going kind of okay. So I decide to cross the street and go back to the gas station where I'd originally filled up the fluids. Because I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I'll just go short. I'll check it. And, you know, I need some oil, too. Maybe I'll buy some oil. Maybe I'll add some oil. Yeah, sure.
|
Ivan:
[34:12]
| The oil's going to fix this problem, of course.
|
Sam:
[34:17]
| So I go across the street to the gas station. I get some oil. I pop the hood open. And guess what? The hose came off on the end that was not clearly on right. Which, of course, you would expect.
|
Ivan:
[34:31]
| It wasn't clearly on right.
|
Sam:
[34:33]
| Yeah, I knew it wasn't on right. So then here is the next big mistake I made.
|
Ivan:
[34:39]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[34:41]
| You know, those of you who are only listening to audio and not watching on video are missing out on all of Yvonne's facial expressions during all of this.
|
Ivan:
[34:48]
| I'm just, like, yeah, I'm just, every second of the story, it's like, I just hear Sam just sliding further and further into quicksand. That's all it feels like, you know? And he keeps, like, trying harder to get out of the quicksand, just keeps burying him further and further, yes.
|
Sam:
[35:09]
| Hey, look, I was actually, like, I was proud of myself. I, like, kind of replaced the hose.
|
Ivan:
[35:18]
| I mean, it looked on there. It looked like it was on.
|
Sam:
[35:22]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[35:22]
| Right? Yeah.
|
Sam:
[35:23]
| Yes. Well, not quite.
|
Ivan:
[35:26]
| No, no, no. But it's like if you were, like, 10 feet away, it looked like it was on.
|
Sam:
[35:30]
| Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. If you were 10 feet away, it would look like it was on. Right. If you looked carefully, you would realize one end was not fully secure. But, you know.
|
Ivan:
[35:40]
| You know, close enough. It's like horseshoes and hand grenades, you know? Yeah, you know.
|
Sam:
[35:45]
| Anyway, so here's my mistake. Well, my next mistake. There are many mistakes in this story, and we're not done yet. But it was now 7 p.m. or something.
|
Ivan:
[35:57]
| Jesus Christ, six hours of this. Okay.
|
Sam:
[36:00]
| The auto parts store closes at 8. Closes at 8. And at this point, I'm like, maybe those ones with the screw, I should have bought them while I was there.
|
Ivan:
[36:14]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[36:15]
| And because... Maybe they, yeah, they loosen over time, but they'd probably be fine for me to drive to the dealership.
|
Ivan:
[36:24]
| Here's the other thing that I realized is you told me that you had been in constant contact with Brandy. Brandy is a very do-it-yourself repair person. Yeah. So I'm sure that instead of like, if you would have asked me, which I would have said, get the fucking car, call AAA, put the fucking car in the tow truck, get it over there. Brandy was probably trying to guide you.
|
Sam:
[36:47]
| She was encouraging me and being sort of like, she was like impressed that I was even trying.
|
Ivan:
[36:53]
| Exactly. So she was impressed that you were trying.
|
Sam:
[36:55]
| Because I also, I am also not a do-it-yourself person. My natural inclination would have.
|
Ivan:
[37:00]
| The natural is to not, you know.
|
Sam:
[37:03]
| But here's the thing too.
|
Ivan:
[37:05]
| So the thing is, it's not about being a do-it-yourself person or not, okay? The problem is recognizing the problem, okay? And how bad it is. Because, for example, I, the thing is, I don't.
|
Sam:
[37:19]
| You would be immediately like, it's not just a hose. Exactly.
|
Ivan:
[37:22]
| I would be immediately, my diagnosis is, this is beyond my skills. Done. No, we're not even trying because I already know from experience, this is beyond my skills. Okay? This thing needs to be towed. There is no reason the car just loses, you know, a car, you know, the cooling system in modern cars, for any of you that don't know this out there, it's a sealed system. Okay. Unless there is some kind.
|
Sam:
[37:54]
| You should never have to add some.
|
Ivan:
[37:55]
| You should never, ever need to add fluid. So unless there is some kind of leak or failure, the water pump failed, the main gasket failed, the hose failed, something failed in the system, you shouldn't need to add water at any point in time, okay? And the worst thing is that if the water is not visible, so say, hey, you're low, but it's not visible, okay? It means that it's something bad. It's really bad. Because one thing is, hey, you get to the front of the car and you see all the water running out. You know immediately, hey, the radiator broke, hose popped off. No big deal. You can just replace those in a second. But if it's low and you go look and you don't see any of it, that's when it's really bad.
|
Sam:
[38:53]
| So anyway to continue the story i realized the hose had popped off when i went to add the oil i never did add the oil by the way at least now you got oil yeah well the oil did eventually get added just not by me we'll continue oh by the way i should mention by this point by this point at least twice good samaritans had stopped by to see what i was doing and see if they okay.
|
Ivan:
[39:19]
| Well that's good nice.
|
Sam:
[39:20]
| So nice so like what good one guy came one guy came by and was like oh i've replaced this hose a few times myself here's a trick to get the tension thing and he tried to try the trick he's like because you can you can use zip ties to sort of grab it and help pull it together and he tried to do that and he did that and he spent like 15 minutes with me like working with it and he's the one who's sort of like hey this wrench they gave you the first time yeah so sucks.
|
Ivan:
[39:49]
| This is not good.
|
Sam:
[39:49]
| It's, it's, it's broken. It's bad. It's like, take this back, get a different one. And then another guy came by and also sort of looked in and helped and, and taught, he didn't really like help, help. He didn't get his hands dirty, like the first guy, but he, he, he like, you know, came by and was like encouraging. I don't know what he was, but anyway, like at least twice, just, you know, random people coming by the parking lot came by to help. so anyway so at this point after i got the oil at the gas station and the hose popped off it's 7 p.m the parts shop closes at 8 i i i could have gone back and gotten those the the ones with the screws but here's the thing you know we we talked a little bit earlier in the show about autism now we can talk about mine i was in an autistic spiral at this point because here's the deal. Like if I had never tried at all, if I had originally just said I'm calling triple A, we're done here. Then I would have been, you know, AAA would have picked me up in an hour or whatever. We would have been cool. But because I had started to try to get this damn hose on.
|
Ivan:
[41:02]
| You were like on a mission from God to get this damn hose on.
|
Sam:
[41:07]
| That's right. And I could not think of anything else. So I kept trying over and over and over again. And I'm like, the auto parts store is closing in 15 minutes. The auto parts store is closing in 10 minutes. I'm like, I should stop this and go get the other brackets because with the brackets and a screwdriver, I might actually be able to do this. But no, I kept trying and trying, trying. The auto parts store closed. I kept trying and trying and trying and trying. I once again got it to sort of the best I could possibly do. I drove it a few hundred feet across the thing again to the mall. It did pop off again, which was not unexpected. I did. I knew I hadn't gotten it on any tighter. I I'm talking, I I'm talking to my wife again. The parade is now over. She, so, and, and, and, and she's like, are you going to call triple a at this point? I'm like, I don't know if I can. what.
|
Ivan:
[42:10]
| Do you mean you don't know.
|
Sam:
[42:10]
| If you can well cause I'm in this autistic spiral I can't stop okay I can't stop I'm like I gotta do this and so like so anyway, she she's like yeah do you need my help i'm like i think yes, okay um like an uber so send.
|
Ivan:
[42:36]
| Me where you are.
|
Sam:
[42:37]
| No no so actually she had taken the train up north my daughter had picked her up okay so what she did was she she she my daughter picked her up They went home again, left my daughter at home. She went and found someplace that sold the screw things. And she got some at a local store. Now, it wasn't an auto parts store. I think these were the ones actually meant for, like, dryer hoses or something.
|
Ivan:
[43:11]
| I'm like, oh, my God, she got some. Great. Now we're down to using house parts for a car. Okay, good, good, good.
|
Sam:
[43:19]
| We're heading in the.
|
Ivan:
[43:20]
| Right direction here yes there you go.
|
Sam:
[43:22]
| And so anyway, so she gets that and then comes to me now with all the round trips and back and forth by the time she gets to me and she brings Alex with her because Alex wanted to witness this to make fun of his dad, good man good man because he loves to mock me for things like this good man yes anyway by the time they got By the time they got to me, it was about 10 p.m.
|
Ivan:
[43:51]
| Oh, my God. Holy shit. You see, this is the reason I said that that moment, the one moment of clarity that you had this whole day, I'll go eat lunch. That was the one moment that I said you had clarity because, fuck, if you had not, by this moment, you would have been just dying.
|
Sam:
[44:14]
| Yes. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So I, I, I, and, and, you know, I went to, there was a Red Robin in the mall. I went to the Red Robin, had a nice burger.
|
Ivan:
[44:25]
| There you go. Nice.
|
Sam:
[44:26]
| Nice burger. Yeah. So anyway, she got there. She, she brings the rings. She brings like some other tools. She, she tries for a few minutes to do it the same way I had been doing it. She's like, you're right. Can't do this. It's not going to work. but let's try these okay so we get those on it and and and it you know she does this of course she did yeah at this at this point she's taken over because i'd been trying for hours and hours now i admit towards the end of this i began to be defeated and in between tries i would just go sit in the car for 15 minutes, And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to try again. You know? Because at this point also, I'm sore. I've been using muscles I've never used before.
|
Ivan:
[45:18]
| I mean, well, it wasn't hot outside at least, right?
|
Sam:
[45:22]
| It was hot. Well, it was hot to me.
|
Ivan:
[45:25]
| What was the temperature?
|
Sam:
[45:27]
| It was like 80.
|
Ivan:
[45:28]
| Shit. Okay. So it was kind of, yeah, that was kind of warm for you. Okay. Yeah. Out there all day, 80 degrees. But remember, it's not just 80 degrees in the sun and doing work.
|
Sam:
[45:38]
| Yeah yeah yeah and do physical yes okay yeah where and physical work where i'm like to squeeze this thing together to get the ring open you're you're exerting quite a bit of force not just you know yeah i was like fighting with this thing for hours and hours and hours okay anyway we get the hoses on we we get the hose on properly we get the clamps on it seems pretty secure we add we add more fluids back in just in case you know whatever she puts the oil in you know because of course it was also okay yeah and and and it definitely needed oil as well um what was the last time you got the car serviced it was it was uh it was a thousand miles overdue for the for the thousand overdue.
|
Ivan:
[46:31]
| A thousand.
|
Sam:
[46:33]
| About.
|
Ivan:
[46:34]
| You know, for a 150,000 mile car, that's a lot.
|
Sam:
[46:40]
| Well, you know, okay, fine. Anyway, I had made a note that I had hit the number that I should be calling them, and I kept forgetting. And so, yeah. Anyway, so we're like, okay, let's Let's try this. Because the dealership where we were going to drop it off, about 20 miles away, about 20 miles away, we made it about 10.
|
Ivan:
[47:12]
| And what happened at the 10?
|
Sam:
[47:14]
| So we did make it 10 miles before it started overheating.
|
Ivan:
[47:17]
| Okay, so the hose stayed on.
|
Sam:
[47:21]
| Yeah, after it started overheating again, we carefully chose our route to not have to go over any of the bridges. We were going to go extra distance to not risk being immobilized on a bridge. Right. So at the moment it overheated, I took the next exit. We found like a parking place at some elementary school somewhere. And I popped the hood and the hoses did stay on.
|
Ivan:
[47:49]
| Go brandy.
|
Sam:
[47:50]
| But it was still overheating.
|
Ivan:
[47:51]
| Go brandy.
|
Sam:
[47:53]
| Yes, go brandy. Absolutely. But it was still overheating. So obviously, as you said at the very beginning, something else was going on. It wasn't just the split hose or whatever, right? And it's quite possible, by the way, that the hose wasn't split the first time I added fluid.
|
Ivan:
[48:09]
| No, what probably happened is at some point after it overheated a couple of times, this is like a resultant thing that happened because of the overheat that the hose split. But this wasn't the source of the problem. This was a secondary problem.
|
Sam:
[48:26]
| Yes so anyway at this point it's like after midnight we're in the parking lot, i finally call triple a 11 hours later it takes two hours for triple a to get to us, triple a takes the car away you know takes it takes it to my dealer that you know i've got I've gotten all the services and repairs and blah, blah, blah. So they, they, they, they, they text me in the morning to let me know what was going on. So let me see. Okay. Was your initial diagnosis correct? Let me read you what the person said. His name is Carlos, by the way. Carlos has worked with me for years. Sam, not good news, man. The oil is mixing with coolant from the car running hot. This indicates internal engine gasket failure or possibly a major engine component failure, cylinder head or block. The next step would be engine disassembly. Maybe time to move on from this car?
|
Ivan:
[49:43]
| So I was right. It's exactly what I said.
|
Sam:
[49:46]
| You were right.
|
Ivan:
[49:47]
| These cars, unfortunately, I know you had a Subaru, but unfortunately, unfortunately, yes, Subarus over the last 15, 20 years have gotten a really bad reputation because they all fail in this same way.
|
Sam:
[50:02]
| And from what I understand, like, from conversations a few years ago, not like right now, the particular years surrounding the 2012 were particularly bad for this problem. Like, I gather it's, you said they're still having the problem, but I gather it was worse.
|
Ivan:
[50:21]
| Well, one thing is, obviously, what do we know about the recent ones? Like, you know, I don't know. They're not that old.
|
Sam:
[50:26]
| Yeah, because they're not old enough.
|
Ivan:
[50:27]
| But the reality is that they haven't really, really, really redesigned that engine that much. Okay? So it's not like they've done something major to make this not happen again. Okay? So, yeah. And that's the reason why I mentioned about why this was catastrophic. Because you didn't see the damn water outside. Right. The only fucking way it could be is it's because it's mixing up with the fucking engine oil. OK, that's the only place where it could be. OK, there is no other place it's going. It's not, you know, it's not disappearing. It's going into the engine. It's mixing with the oil that turns it into. Man, it looks like a milkshake when it's in there, unfortunately.
|
Sam:
[51:18]
| And so, so the bottom line, the best case scenario, and the worst just goes up for that, would be like seven grand to deal with this thing.
|
Ivan:
[51:30]
| How much?
|
Sam:
[51:30]
| The car is not worth.
|
Ivan:
[51:31]
| How much is the car?
|
Sam:
[51:32]
| It's not worth even remotely close to seven. So basically, I'd be lucky if it's worth a thousand.
|
Ivan:
[51:37]
| You've got to junk it. You've got no choice.
|
Sam:
[51:39]
| You know, because here, like, look, not only is it a 2012 Subaru Impreza, it's a 2012 Subaru Impreza where the backseat has been eaten by rats and not replaced. So, like, it's, well, not entirely, but there's a hole.
|
Ivan:
[51:55]
| There's a hole.
|
Sam:
[51:58]
| Like, we put a seat, at a certain point, we decided it's not worth fixing the backseat because that would cost $3,000. We'll put a seat cover on. And I've been good about putting in, like, the little rat repellent and stuff every few months. Well, I haven't been good right now. Well, oh, well, it doesn't matter anymore. Anyway, so, like, yeah, I'd be lucky if the damn thing's worth $1,000. You know, I'd probably have to pay to get the thing, like, taken away. You know, I mean, there might be some parts that it could be sold for. I don't know. But, like, it's probably. I will probably have to pay to take it.
|
Ivan:
[52:30]
| The car is worth junk value at this point. They'll take it because, look, if your doors are in, you know, if your doors are in decent shape.
|
Sam:
[52:39]
| The hood, nothing's in decent shape. This is me you're talking about.
|
Ivan:
[52:45]
| I mean, what I'm saying, are they rusted through, you know, or something?
|
Sam:
[52:50]
| Probably not rusted through.
|
Ivan:
[52:51]
| Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, somebody has got to beat her car, wants a hood, you know, whatever.
|
Sam:
[52:59]
| Gotcha.
|
Ivan:
[52:59]
| You know, I mean.
|
Sam:
[53:01]
| You know, they're not pretty. Everything's scratched.
|
Ivan:
[53:04]
| No, well, they're going to have to paint it, whatever. But if it's if it's not rusted through, somebody needs to use.
|
Sam:
[53:10]
| I've got tape permanently attached in various places.
|
Ivan:
[53:13]
| OK, so basically. Sam is cooked. Sam is once again cooked another car.
|
Sam:
[53:19]
| Just just to just to be clear that taped, not because I'm like holding parts of the car together, taped because at one point or another. Well, at one point, Alex bought some stuff at Lowe's that didn't fit inside the car, and so he attached it to the car with scotch tape.
|
Ivan:
[53:36]
| Can I give you the worst news? Can I give you the worst news?
|
Sam:
[53:39]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[53:40]
| If you would have called me immediately when this happened—.
|
Sam:
[53:45]
| You would have told me.
|
Ivan:
[53:46]
| No, I would have told you to stop immediately because I suspect that it has to be the head gas. And here's the thing.
|
Sam:
[53:53]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[53:53]
| Can I tell you the worst news? That if you probably had stopped driving at that moment.
|
Sam:
[53:58]
| I might have made it worse.
|
Ivan:
[53:59]
| No, you didn't. No, no, no.
|
Sam:
[54:00]
| You didn't. I probably made it worse.
|
Ivan:
[54:01]
| You made it worse. Unfortunately.
|
Sam:
[54:04]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[54:04]
| So if you had stopped at that moment.
|
Sam:
[54:07]
| And immediately got in tow.
|
Ivan:
[54:08]
| Immediately got in tow. It may, may have been salvageable. But, but, but.
|
Sam:
[54:15]
| Probably not.
|
Ivan:
[54:16]
| Probably not because the problem is you still have to replace the head gasket, which means tearing apart the engine, which means a couple of thousand dollar job. And if the car's not worth, you know, the car's probably still not worth the repair. One of the things is that these cars used don't get a lot of money. Don't get a lot of money because everybody is.
|
Sam:
[54:39]
| We already, a few years ago, once, put more money into it than it was worth just to keep it going a few more years. Doing it again makes no sense.
|
Ivan:
[54:49]
| Not with this, no.
|
Sam:
[54:51]
| No.
|
Ivan:
[54:52]
| The moral of the story that I will tell you, here is the moral that I will tell you, is that because of your driving and maintenance record, my suggestion is whatever the fuck car you buy right now please for the love of God make it be a Toyota, and I will tell you why look this isn't listen this isn't listen, fucking Toyotas this shit doesn't happen and not just that but they will they allow themselves to get abused and still be rescued anyway because the cars are it's a resale value thing, fucking Subarus have gotten such a bad rap over the years for this shit that the resale value of the used ones is zero because everybody knows that their engines are a ticking time bomb waiting to go off okay, but but a used toyota like this with these miles and this age probably without the rad hopefully you know it looks like that would have been seven thousand dollars eight thousand dollars, You know, at that age, they just hold value so much more because people know even if a psychopath like you, who knows nothing about maintenance, gets a hold of one of these, they won't be able to destroy it.
|
Sam:
[56:13]
| Yeah, so, I don't know. Like, I don't particularly like the Toyota, so we'll see.
|
Ivan:
[56:18]
| Who cares about liking the car? I don't give a shit about you liking the car. I want you to get a fucking Toyota Prius. Okay? You know why? Because you will not break it. You will not break it.
|
Sam:
[56:34]
| Anyway.
|
Ivan:
[56:35]
| A Corolla Hybrid. Whatever. But you will not break this fucking thing. And that is like my primary goal. My primary goal is not for you to like it. My primary goal is for you to go A to B, that if you forget your oil interval by 3,000 miles, the car won't give a shit. Because that's how Toyotas are. That's the reality. Listen, you will go through all the records. You see, you know, I keep watching all these videos of people with car repair. The reason I know about this is because I watch so many of these that I knew that this is a common problem. But the one thing that you watch in all of these, the common thread is that they got some guy that's like you, but was driving a Corolla and they went 5,000 miles over the service and they go in, they bring the car and they're like, motherfucker. It's like the car didn't care. It just kept going. It didn't matter. And you want to keep your car for 300,000 miles.
|
Sam:
[57:33]
| Well, actually, my own, I mean, that would be ideal. My only criteria is I drive until this happens.
|
Ivan:
[57:41]
| Yes. But I would like it to be as long as possible before this happens. So the reality is that the only manufacturer that makes a vehicle that can withstand your use case is Toyota. I don't think you're understanding this. You don't really have an option. Unless you just like to go through this shit, I guess. Well, it makes for good content.
|
Sam:
[58:06]
| It makes for good content. And it has been, what, 2012? And I think I actually bought it at the end of 2011. So what, that's 14 years? That's not bad.
|
Ivan:
[58:17]
| But it's only 150,000 miles, Sam. It really isn't that many miles. Not for a modern car. You know, I mean, I'm sorry. But, you know, like, I got rid of, you know, like, my BMW that has a, well, the thing is, the BMWs have a reputation for braking more. But the reality is that because I'm a pain in my ass, you know, like, I got rid of it with 170,000 miles, okay, you know, for example. But, you know, but a modern car going 200,000 miles isn't really like it used to be that was like an outlier. it has become far more common like with hondas toyotas even a number of like gm products but a lot of them the problem is that they're massively gas guzzling like chevy silverados or something like that that you know i mean you know you're getting like gallons for the mile and it's like not really conducive yeah so like.
|
Sam:
[59:08]
| Look we we may talk more more car shopping.
|
Ivan:
[59:12]
| Well because you have to go to the office. You need a car.
|
Sam:
[59:20]
| Yes. I need a car.
|
Ivan:
[59:22]
| I mean, like, you need a car like right away.
|
Sam:
[59:24]
| This week, I already made an excuse and said, hey, my car's in the shop. I'm going to work from home for the next few days. And it was a holiday week. I need, you know, Monday, I need to be in the office. Now, that does not mean I need a car.
|
Ivan:
[59:41]
| But you can take the train. You're going to have to fucking take the train for a little bit.
|
Sam:
[59:46]
| I'm going to have to get rides, take the train, take the bus. I will have to take one of those modes of operation that I have complained about in the past being horribly inconvenient, but I've got no choice. So I'm going to have to do that for a little while because I also don't want to rush. Like, is it physically possible that I could go out tomorrow and have a car by Monday? Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:13]
| This would be very simple if you just took the fucking common sense advice, which is don't go anywhere. Go to Toyota and get a fucking Prius. Don't even think about it. Go get a fucking Prius. That's it. You don't need any. By the way, the new Prius, by the way, looks really cool.
|
Sam:
[1:00:37]
| Is improved?
|
Ivan:
[1:00:38]
| No, no, no, no, not just improved. It looks.
|
Sam:
[1:00:40]
| Not the outside. I hated the interior.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:42]
| The interior is improved. The exterior is improved. How it drives is improved. The mileage is improved. right now it's rated as one of the best fucking cars there is it's not like before it was kind of like no no no no no this car now is a really fucking nice car it's cheap reliable and economical you cannot you know because i know that for you i'm like not saying get an electric car because you will be stranded without a battery in like inside like i don't know i don't think.
|
Sam:
[1:01:15]
| No no i I definitely would go that direction if I could. I'm not worried about the battery.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:22]
| Well, you've got a Prius Prime. Here's the thing. I'll tell you what. The Prius Prime gets you 50, 60 miles on plug-in. The great thing about the Prius Prime is that even when it's not on battery, unlike some plug-in hybrids, it still gets excellent mileage that some don't. But that one does. And it's bulletproof. The cars are fucking bulletproof. You just need a bulletproof car. Just go get a fucking Prius. Just stop fucking digging around. Just don't, you know. I can't remember. Now from the slack. It's not. I think Ed and Ed have a Prius.
|
Sam:
[1:02:03]
| I think several people have had Prius.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:05]
| And they all love them.
|
Sam:
[1:02:06]
| Bob just got that Ionic.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:09]
| He likes the Ionic. The Ionic 5 is really cool. There's some really great deals on it. You know, the only thing about the Ionic is that it's not the same thing. you just had Prius yeah but no but the reason is because I know because here's the thing Toyota build quality is still far better than Hyundai, Okay, period. That's it. That's the reason. And right now, what I want is like something that is bulletproof. And Toyota build quality is still the best out there. There's just no, you know, every time that I see some old Toyota, people come in and it's like, holy shit. But, you know, it's just, they are just so reliable that, you know, for you, I would say, get a fucking Prius. They're cheap.
|
Sam:
[1:02:59]
| Cheap is important, too. Like, my ideal price right now would be zero.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:04]
| Oh, well, you know.
|
Sam:
[1:03:05]
| Now, but I know zero is not possible. I had been, like, for the last few months, keeping my eye on those Ionics, because they do look cool. They do look cool. But, like, size-wise...
|
Ivan:
[1:03:20]
| Listen, the Ionic is a good... The Ionics is...
|
Sam:
[1:03:24]
| By the way, just saying, the Impreza, perfect size for me. Like, I don't want much smaller, I don't want much bigger. So, close to that size.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:33]
| The Prius is very close to that size. Yeah. You know...
|
Sam:
[1:03:37]
| And so is the Ionic. The Ionic's a little...
|
Ivan:
[1:03:39]
| The Ioniq is a little bit bigger because it's more like a little wagon. John. John has a Prius that he loves as well.
|
Sam:
[1:03:47]
| Anyway, so we'll be poking around. And, like, yeah, the Ioniq is also, like, price range would be stretched.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:55]
| Well, that's the thing. Whereas the Prius, it's cheap.
|
Sam:
[1:03:59]
| Could probably manage it, but would have to be really sure about it. And also, like, you know, I'm not going to get into details on this stuff, but, like, you know, I'm still not feeling super secure in my employment situation.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:13]
| Toyota Prius, starting MSRP, $28,350. Okay? Here's the other thing about the Prius. I would say, the one reason why it's still— And the.
|
Sam:
[1:04:23]
| Primes you mentioned start at.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:24]
| $33. Exactly. Here's the thing about why the Toyota in the end is cheaper anyway than the Ioniq by miles. It doesn't matter. If you get the plug-in, you're still eligible for the tax credit, okay? Number one. If you lease it, okay, then you could buy it out, whatever. But just to get the tax credit. That's what a lot of people do. Just because it's... By the way, you can still get those until September, okay?
|
Sam:
[1:04:47]
| But remember also, like, I beat the hell out of cars and probably would go over the miles.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:54]
| No, no, no, no.
|
Sam:
[1:04:55]
| No, no, no, no.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:56]
| No. The only reason, listen, you, listen, there are people literally that I heard at VW that were doing this. In order to get the tax credit.
|
Sam:
[1:05:02]
| They buy it immediately.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:03]
| Exactly. They bought, they would lease it and they would buy it out immediately just to get the tax credit.
|
Sam:
[1:05:08]
| Like seconds later.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:09]
| Yes, literally. Back-to-back transactions. Okay? Okay? Literally. And so that saves you $7,500. It's not two bits. Okay? It's a lot of money. All right? So, so that's important. And since it's going away, by the way, the credit's going away in September. So, I mean, this is the opportunity to get that. And look, man, I'm telling you, I honestly, I love this car. It's a great car. Anybody that has reliable transportation, Prius, fucking get the goddamn Prius. It's fucking great. You know, you will not be unhappy with this. And it will resist your abuse, which is more important than anything. And if you look at the interior in the pictures.
|
Sam:
[1:05:58]
| But can I easily change the radiator?
|
Ivan:
[1:06:01]
| Ah, you won't have to.
|
Sam:
[1:06:03]
| Because I want to do that like the first week.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:05]
| That's the first thing you're going to do. You're going to spend 12 hours out there in the heat again, like, you know, inserting yourself to death. If you look at the interior, the interior of this car, unlike before, it looks really nice. Everything is really nice about this car. There's nothing bad about this car. And you know what? Your fuel budget, what you spend on fuel in the first month, I guarantee you will drop like 80%. Because right now, your impress has got to do, what, 20-something miles per gallon, maybe, commuting to work?
|
Sam:
[1:06:35]
| I probably lost at this point. It probably did that way.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:38]
| Yeah, so not even, okay? This will get 70, 80 miles per gallon. So you're going to be saving, probably, because you're driving now, how far is your commute every day?
|
Sam:
[1:06:51]
| About 25 miles.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:53]
| So 50 miles round trip. I mean, think about this, okay? you're doing 250, you're doing 1,000 miles, you know, oh God, 1,000 miles divided by 20, which is 50 gallons, 50 gallons times about over $3, 150, close to $200 a month on gas. This thing will save you $150 on fuel easily a month. Just so whatever you're thinking about, you're going to save $150 on fuel at least a month.
|
Sam:
[1:07:25]
| Anyway, We've been going a long time. We have like no time left for like news stuff. But we will probably discuss more car options on the Curmudgeons course Slack. I won't mention it there until this episode is out.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:40]
| Look at all this shit. Look, it's cool. It drives. It's economical. It's reliable. What the fuck else you want? And it's cheap. This is the one thing I keep getting. People going to the dealership. Well, we can't find a car for less than $50,000. No, no, no. You can. man, all you idiots just want to spend too much money. It used to be in the past that to get a nice car, oh, I have to, some features or whatever. You have to buy the luxury car. You have to buy the whatever. One of the things I'm having a discussion this week is that a lot of the mainstream cars now have so many of the features that used to be only exclusive to luxury cars.
|
Sam:
[1:08:17]
| You know, wait a second. Is this, is this, wait. Oh, it just, is the handle just hidden?
|
Ivan:
[1:08:23]
| What do you mean the handle? It's a short knob. It's a short knob. It's not hidden. It's a stubby knob.
|
Sam:
[1:08:29]
| Looking at the Prius Prime from a distance, it looks like it didn't have a back door.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:34]
| Oh, no, no, it's a hatchback.
|
Sam:
[1:08:35]
| It didn't have a back handle. Well, yeah, I see that.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:37]
| All the cars now have the handles hidden in the back. They're all hidden in a little thing. Modern thing.
|
Sam:
[1:08:44]
| Weird.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:45]
| It's not weird. Almost every modern car has that damn thing hidden in the back. Under the lip. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:08:53]
| Under the lip.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:53]
| Like my wife's crv is that way my car is that way my my literally almost every oh i i.
|
Sam:
[1:09:02]
| See the thing maybe i don't know anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:05]
| Yeah oh so now anyway now now the decision will be made we will talk more on the curmudgeon score slack after.
|
Sam:
[1:09:11]
| This is out yes what what are you.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:13]
| Laughing at now of course the key buying decision will be the it's right under the toyota logo it's right right by the right by the rear view camera. There you go. I can see it. There you go. In the back. There's a little in the back door. Oh, no, they're on the top right. No, no, no, no, no. The door handles are...
|
Sam:
[1:09:33]
| Yeah, I found it.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:34]
| I found it. It's just weird.
|
Sam:
[1:09:36]
| It's not enough.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:37]
| Aerodynamic!
|
Sam:
[1:09:38]
| Anyway. Oh.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:40]
| Save fuel! Save the fucking planet! I know that the Republicans are, you know, just passed a bill that said, let's kill the fucking planet, bitches! We won't be here then anyway!
|
Sam:
[1:09:52]
| Okay, okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:53]
| The new GOP slogan. 2026.
|
Sam:
[1:09:57]
| So yes for anybody interested in giving me on advice on this chime in under curmudgeons corner slack probably like i said i we will probably do some looking at cars and i will look at a prius as and i'll probably also look at an ionic although it's probably spendy for me right now but.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:16]
| But you gotta remember the 7500 it looks cool you gotta remember the 7500 credit it okay you got whatever you do the thing that you do that i'm telling you the thing that you make sure you make sure to take that make sure you take that in the account and the way that you buy it out is quite simple recently i took you you joined the credit union that that the part of they offer excellent financing for these all you do is very simple you do the lease at the store you take that paperwork you apply to their credit union you want to buy out the lease you get the amount for the buyout you send it to them they'll do all the paperwork boom boom boom and all of a sudden, it's done. And you get your $7,500. Don't fuck around. I'll lose it. Do not, do not, do not. If you're going to get one of these, it qualifies it. Do not do the fuckable. No, I don't want to lease. No, fuck that. You lease it and you turn around and you fucking finance it immediately.
|
Sam:
[1:11:09]
| Okay. We will talk more, Yvonne, offline and on the Slack. And if anybody else wants to give me advice, do it on the Slack. We will look at some cars this weekend, but we'll almost surely not actually buy this weekend, maybe next weekend. So, ah, of course the other possibility, I could just get like a really old beater, just as old as the one I have.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:31]
| Sure. And that will like last. Well, if it's an old beater Toyota, maybe. Sure.
|
Sam:
[1:11:37]
| Get like a 20 year old Toyota, replace the 15 year old Subaru.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:42]
| A 20 year old Camry. I mean, they said that, you know, the earth, you know, you know, they, they will probably survive the flood.
|
Sam:
[1:11:50]
| Okay, shall we actually take a break?
|
Ivan:
[1:11:52]
| Yes, and let's talk about something.
|
Sam:
[1:11:54]
| Maybe spend 20, 30 minutes about something else and then wrap it up. Okay, here we go. It is, which break is it? It is this break. The one and only break this time, I think. Here we go. Okay, we are back. So what do you want to talk about? I talked about a car for an hour, so it's your turn.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:50]
| What do we want to talk about? Let's see what happened this week. I mean, the only subject that we really left on there is the fact that the Republicans passed up the big stupid bill. I mean, and that's really about the only thing.
|
Sam:
[1:13:09]
| The one big, beautiful bill. One Big Beautiful Bill, which, by the way, they made the actual title of the bill. It's not just Trump saying it. I mean, it was Trump saying it, but then they made it the title of the bill.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:23]
| I mean, it's just the entire spectacle was disgusting. It is painfully clear from many that so many of the Republicans themselves hated this bill. But they were all scared of going against Donald. That's it. Nothing else. I mean, this bill doesn't really... I mean, it's... The only people that benefit is people that make a lot of money tax-wise. Everybody else gets screwed. Everything else gets screwed. Oh, and we did this incredibly ridiculous increase in ICE funding.
|
Sam:
[1:14:12]
| Massive.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:13]
| Ten times. We're giving ICE ten times the budget it had before, which is absolutely just insane. By the way, how crazy is this? All the polling shows, 70% of people, are unhappy with this immigration campaign as it has been rolled out the last few months. Polling shows huge numbers of people against it. But that's what they put in the bill. Second thing, because the Republicans have realized that they could just say any lie, and most of their supporters will believe it. They keep saying that this cuts the deficit, whereas this will significantly increase the deficit. This bill is anything about—it actually does a whole bunch of things that stifle jobs, not actually create jobs. because there is no funding in here, for example, to incentivize any job creation. I mean, it's all trickle-down shit again.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:19]
| The funding bill cuts healthcare for a lot of people. And by the way, but more cynically, delays the healthcare cuts until a couple of years later so people, because to convince our gullible electorate that the republicans didn't do it so then if they lose they can blame the democrats for their health care cuts how cynical is that.
|
Sam:
[1:15:44]
| Yes that and not only the health care cuts but other things are also delayed to after midterms uh basically basically anything that could have a negative effect that people would feel right away well not anything but lots of things with negative effects that people are delayed until after midterms. Whereas, of course, the things that they really want, you know, like the ICE funding, which will also have a negative effect on a lot of people. But just saying, those things come into play much more quickly.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:19]
| So I'm just...
|
Sam:
[1:16:20]
| And the tax stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:22]
| So it's just, I mean... Here, the biggest problem about this is that just like before, You know, these tax cuts to the rich don't translate into any economic boost. They never have. We've gone through this before already. We've tried this before. W did it. Trump did it. Reagan did it. None of these things translate into any general economic benefit. And Biden showed very clearly that if you do give money to, you know, people like in the from poverty to one to two times the poverty line, that that money does translate directly into economic impact. OK, for for the economy, because those people are the ones that are most in need. And when they get that money, they spend it right away because they need it. OK, they needed it. But this bill does the total opposite. It's going to make those people poor while, you know, giving money to the rich. And by the way, forget about this. At the same time, we're talking about all this tariff policy, which it appears that Trump is, you know, unless the courts finally decide on whether all these tariffs are illegal, which that is still in some kind of holding pattern. I'm not sure where that case is still still going through.
|
Sam:
[1:17:50]
| All of these legal things will take a long time.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:54]
| Right now, Sam was asking me about the impact of tariffs and why haven't we seen them, and I was mentioning how difficult it is to gauge the timeline. Goldman Sachs came out with a note recently specifically talking about this that I had shared on the Slack. They basically said, listen, guys, these are going to happen. This is inflationary. This will take inflation back to levels that we had two years ago, okay? There is no...
|
Ivan:
[1:18:27]
| It's just it's just it's hard to go and tell you exactly. But their note said tariffs have not yet meaningfully affected broader inflation data, but the levies will soon cause inflation to shoot back up to the highest level since 2023. OK, that's the analysis from Goldman Sachs economists. Not exactly a whole bunch of left wing psychopaths over there at Goldman Sachs last time I checked. okay so no no no it's not a no no i i i know it's hard to believe so that's the thing like right now you've got i mean you're making poor people poor with health care and all these other cuts of whatever and at the same time you've done all of this that's going to make inflation go back to where it was a couple of years ago. I mean, this is a fucking, this is a disaster.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:28]
| And, oh, but the other big issue. Yeah, we're increasing funding of ICE by this much, right? What is that going to do to the labor market?
|
Sam:
[1:19:39]
| Because, well, you're going to hire a lot of ICE agents.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:42]
| Apparently, we're going to hire a lot of ICE agents in order to basically reduce the pool of available labor on the other side, which will have a negative effect on economic growth and will also be inflationary. I mean, this entire thing is the worst combination of everything. And by the way, many Republicans know this and have said so in private. They know this.
|
Sam:
[1:20:14]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:15]
| And these fuckers just followed this idiot off the cliff, It's just, you know, and people are dumb. You know what? The other day I heard somebody, and I have to explain this again, and they didn't realize. I heard somebody say, you know, they know that all this is bad. And you know what they asked me? Well, why didn't the Democrats stop it? And I'm like, okay, do you under? Okay. And I have to explain. I said, without being condescending. Okay. I don't think you understand. But the Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. The Democrats cannot stop anything unless some Republicans join them. Really? Yes, really. But Sam, so many people. You know, it's like the same people that told me, well, why didn't the Democrats save abortion?
|
Sam:
[1:21:13]
| It's, I'm sorry, if you'd wanted that. You needed Hillary in 2016.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:19]
| But even still, how, why did they, I mean, we haven't, you know, like I said, and the only time that the fucking Democrats have had a filibuster proof majority was so brief in the last 30 years.
|
Sam:
[1:21:32]
| And they used that for.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:33]
| They gave us all healthcare. You know what? The thing is that I keep going to how stupid our electorate is because it's just, it's is so difficult to see cause and effect, the Democrats, when they held all the levers of power, gave us the biggest improvement in health care since Medicare was passed. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:21:57]
| In the 1960s.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:59]
| They gave us the, Sam, they gave us the biggest improvement in the average health care of every American since Medicare was passed. And people don't understand that's what they did.
|
Sam:
[1:22:11]
| And by the way, also in the probably people don't fully understand and won't for a while, if ever, is that this thing that just passed this week undoes a significant part of that. like not directly but by reducing funding for the medicare expansion a lot of that is going to go away there's you know it and and of course they're all gaslighting this too like there's like oh we're not touching yeah we're just cutting.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:37]
| Them off the money.
|
Sam:
[1:22:38]
| You know right and and oh we're it's only we're getting rid of fraud and abuse no there are significant cuts the estimates are like Yeah, over 10 million people will lose access to health care.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:52]
| Now, here's the one thing. Now, but over a few years. 10 million people lose it. That is still better than when we were before the ACA. Okay?
|
Sam:
[1:23:01]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:02]
| That is still better.
|
Sam:
[1:23:03]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:03]
| But still, all they did is make it worse. Everything they do just makes shit worse. I don't fucking, I mean, for the average American, every time these guys pass some legislation, they make I mean what is it that they do to me I don't fucking Sam I don't fucking understand this how the hell could these guys just get away with at every turn at every turn make the average American's life worse and people don't get it they don't get it but.
|
Sam:
[1:23:37]
| Yvonne they're gonna get rid of all the criminal.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:42]
| Rapist Mexicans criminal rapist Mexicans you know all the.
|
Sam:
[1:23:46]
| Gangs and and they'll make it easier for you to get.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:49]
| Come ah oh.
|
Sam:
[1:23:51]
| Did did you see one of one of the important things in this in this bill that just passed no sales tax on.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:58]
| Silencers i know that's how could wait how could they regulate sales tax at the state at a state level i don't what what i.
|
Sam:
[1:24:06]
| I don't know i don't i heard that i could be wrong.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:08]
| I'm sorry.
|
Sam:
[1:24:09]
| I i i think they did.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:12]
| Well, I mean, that sounds weird because, I mean, sales tax is a, you know, state and local thing.
|
Sam:
[1:24:20]
| Let's see. Oh, it's the tax stamps on silencers.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:25]
| Yeah, because they're federal tax stamps.
|
Sam:
[1:24:27]
| Tax stamps, not sales tax.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:28]
| That's what you bought. Like, okay, all right.
|
Sam:
[1:24:31]
| Are going to do it.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:32]
| Yeah, not sales tax. Okay, all right. That'd make no sense.
|
Sam:
[1:24:35]
| It's some tax. It's some tax. Yeah, well, okay. I was close.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:38]
| Okay, but that's fair to be good at the right tax.
|
Sam:
[1:24:40]
| But this is important.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:42]
| You're reducing the price of silencers. I mean, they take away health care to give you gut silencers, Sam! The hell's wrong with these people?
|
Sam:
[1:24:58]
| And this is another one of those things i mean we've talked one ongoing theme on this show is how you know you just talked about how the electorate just doesn't know what's going on there's there's part of that this basic education about civics knowing how government works and then another big part that we have talked about a lot is the democratic is the inability, Well, Democratic messages, but I was just going to say the inability to process delayed reaction.
|
Sam:
[1:25:30]
| This bill is another bill that will have implications going out over the course of an entire decade. Some things will hit right away. Some things will hit after a couple years. Some things will hit after five or six years. Now, that does potentially mean that some future Congress and some future administration could undo it before we get to the end of the 10 years. But as passed, this has timed effects going out over an entire decade. And they specifically backload some of the things. You know, so some random thing hits in 2030, how many people are going to connect the dots and be, this is because of who I elected back in 2024, six years ago, you know? I mean, even those of us who pay lots of attention, it's hard to always connect those dots of like, oh, yeah, this is happening because of that law that was passed seven years ago. you know, or whatever. I'll also note there is significant undoing of a lot of the act with all the subsidies for renewable energies.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:00]
| Now, a number of them, at least, they gave them time. They didn't do, like, abruptly. Projects need to get kicked off by 2026.
|
Sam:
[1:27:09]
| Some of them were cut out by the Senate.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:12]
| And, you know, so they've got time to kick off some projects and certain things. So at least the Senate didn't go and, like, end them abruptly. The one that ends the quickest is the car credit. That was set for September.
|
Sam:
[1:27:27]
| September. So, yeah, back to my car thing. If I'm going to do something.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:31]
| Do it now. Yeah, you have to. But the car credit goes away by September. But there were others like for clean energy projects, I think they gave them a deadline of like 2026 that they had to get started by and some others like that, that they delayed certain deadlines. And like, like you mentioned, some of the health care cuts didn't start until 2027. So after midterms, they were very, this was pure political calculation.
|
Sam:
[1:28:01]
| Yes. And, you know, even some of them, like, some Republicans in Congress have implied, well, like, Susan Murkowski or whatever, when she voted for the Senate.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:16]
| Said she hoped to— You combined Susan Collins with Lisa Murkowski?
|
Sam:
[1:28:19]
| Did I get it wrong?
|
Ivan:
[1:28:20]
| Oh, I did. I did.
|
Sam:
[1:28:22]
| I did.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:23]
| Well, kind of like.
|
Sam:
[1:28:24]
| Well, you know, sure. I combined them.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:26]
| Why not? Same thing.
|
Sam:
[1:28:27]
| Same thing, basically. Lisa Murkowski, I think, specifically said that she was not happy with the bill, even though she voted for it, but she hoped the House would fix it and it would come back to the Senate again. Of course, that didn't happen. But off the record, I've heard people reporting that at least some Republicans in Congress have been like, don't worry, it won't be that bad. At some point, the Democrats will fix some of this.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:57]
| So basically this is what they're okay so this is their thought process okay which it talks about the cynicism of these bastards because we have said this before that they're not interested in fixing anything they're not interested in legislation they're just interested in clicks so this is what you do you pass this whole damn thing that allows you know donald to have his his victory at this political thing or whatever you're allowed to go out there like claim how blah, blah, blah, all this stuff, and you do it knowing full well that a whole bunch of it's going to be undone, so therefore you didn't do it because you wanted to fix anything. You just wanted to do it to score. a political victory.
|
Sam:
[1:29:39]
| I will add to that. I will add to that. If you do have a situation where the Democrats get back in power, even partially, like they take the House but not the Senate or wherever, and the bad effects start hitting after midterms, you can still blame the Democrats. And by the way, if the Democrats do try to fix some of the problems at some later point, you can blame them at that point for the problem they're fixing, and say they're messing with it. That's why it's bad.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:11]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all their fault. You see, they're fucking around with it. Right, you see? We passed the perfect bill. Now the Democrats are fucking it up.
|
Sam:
[1:30:19]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:21]
| Man, this is fucking... I, you know, I just... Yeah, look at shit, like, for example, I love this one, where the Wall Street Journal publishes a story, Wall Street worries as crisis-level deficits have become the government's default mode. Okay, for example. Because this is what that has been instituted. There's a chart that I shared from The Economist that showed that during the Biden administration, unlike what the Republicans have repeatedly claimed.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:55]
| Public debt as a percentage of GDP started going down steeply during the Biden administration, where it had been growing under the Trump administration. It had surged over the pandemic, but Biden had started to make that go down in a double combination because he had helped the economy grow stronger than it had been in a while, while at the same time, you know, spending had been managed in a more prudent way. you know and so this whole thing about the and and the projection is that it's going to go through the roof so you know it's just so frustrating with these people what all they do is just they lie and they just lie about it and lie and lie just oh it's going to cut the deficit oh it's going to do this oh no we're fixing you know the big the headline on the economist story was the big beautiful bill reveals the hollowness of trumponomics and that's I mean that that's really the that's that's the, Plain truth, it's just completely hollow. It's just all bullshit. There is no substance behind any of this whatsoever.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:12]
| Oh, and by the way, good news. Did you see that because of the cuts of the National Weather Service that, you know, our flash flood forecasting has gotten much inferior? And how many people, 20, you know, about 24 people got killed. At least 20 girls attending a summer camp are missing. And there's still a bunch missing. Okay. And by the way, this is not even us. Texas officials basically said this was all due to a bad forecast by the National Weather Service. This is what I say. But everything they do kills people, hurts people, hurts the country. I mean, there is what, Sam, what the fuck have they done that helps anybody other than themselves?
|
Sam:
[1:33:02]
| Well, that's the point. They're helping themselves.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:06]
| They're not even their voters, Sam.
|
Sam:
[1:33:08]
| Oh, I know. I know. What they give their voters is- Own the lips!
|
Ivan:
[1:33:15]
| We banned five transsexual athletes across the country, Sam. Five of them! Look at that! What? We protected all of you from the five transsexual athletes that you were scared of for some reason.
|
Sam:
[1:33:29]
| The culture war stuff and on the libs is is the raw meat that the Republican base gets happy with. I saw someone repost some social media post from somebody that said, you know, I forget exactly what they were talking about. it was pre-fowl, but it was basically like, I'd be willing to pay like $50 for my like groceries or whatever, as long as we get rid of all those damn illegal immigrants, you know, for like an avocado or something stupid.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:02]
| Like imported. What a fucking liar.
|
Sam:
[1:34:04]
| You know what?
|
Ivan:
[1:34:06]
| You know what? The worst thing about these people, they're just such liars because the moment that they go to the store and they see an avocado at $50, you know what they're going to be doing. They're going to be, they're going to be living. And you know this. It's just ridiculous. So let's see. I'm looking over here. So I found this thing. For example, let's talk about some of the cynical things in the bill. Tax cuts lasting only through Trump's term. Okay, this is a New York Times that a summary of this. Okay, just see how the cynical timelines on this thing. So no tax on overtime only lasts through the end of Trump's term. So look at how they're doing this, right? So if a Democrat wins, what's going to happen? What does it look like?
|
Sam:
[1:34:51]
| What? Sorry. What?
|
Ivan:
[1:34:53]
| Stop typing. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:34:54]
| I'm sorry.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:55]
| Tax cuts.
|
Sam:
[1:34:56]
| Stop typing. You know, I'm researching the damn part you were talking about.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:00]
| Take a short break because we only got a couple of minutes left. Tax cuts lasting only through Trump's term.
|
Sam:
[1:35:05]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:05]
| Okay. No tax on overtime. Yeah. So think about this. Democrat wins. All of a sudden. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:35:12]
| It goes away.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:12]
| No tax on tips. Also. Now, again, same thing. ends no tax on carload.
|
Sam:
[1:35:18]
| No interest i will i will add i will add a lot of people to also all of these ones that you're running through if you look into the details of them, don't actually help the people who need the most very much because they're they're very low limits that you have to be below for them to apply there's some there there's some other technical my point is.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:41]
| The cynical timeline okay all right.
|
Sam:
[1:35:43]
| Yes yeah other tracks.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:44]
| Provisions for example but But those end there, you know, I mean, it's just that one that one was the one to me that that really just was just so cynical about how they they would they would go and like do that. But, hey, we'll do it. But, hey, Democrats in power, we can blame them for it immediately. You know, you're going to see. And that's what they're that's what they're negotiating. So anyway, all right, well, we're almost at our usual time. I think we need to be done.
|
Sam:
[1:36:18]
| We're good. It's time to do the wrap up. And then, yeah, I will. I don't know. I have to deal with the damn car thing. I really didn't want to right now, but whatever. Okay. curmudgeon-quarter.com you can find all our stuff our archives, our transcripts all the ways to contact us, stuff I still have not linked the TikTok at this point I will next time I mess with the site I'll add the TikTok well apparently you shared we.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:54]
| Got a lot of views of the last TikToks.
|
Sam:
[1:36:57]
| Yeah the last TikTok had a few let me see here I posted three videos one of them had 145 views One of them had 777, and the third one had 795.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:11]
| I mean, I see one here that you shared on my 780 views on one.
|
Sam:
[1:37:16]
| Well, I just gave you the updated number.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:19]
| The number, you said it sounded lower.
|
Sam:
[1:37:20]
| The one where the three numbers are 145, 777, and 795.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:26]
| Okay, I thought it was 770. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:37:29]
| 795. Yes, and we got comments on two of the three videos, and we got likes on all three. Lots of likes. You always get a few of those, I guess. Whatever. Let's read. OK, so one is the one that got the most is the one where we talked about our disappointment in how elected officials. Ah, no, I just want the comments. I don't want to play the video. Here we go. Comments where we talked about our disappointment in establishment Democrats supporting Cuomo and the Mamdani stuff. So let's see. Somebody said. Let's do all comments. All comments. Somebody said we lost a good representative by getting rid of Franken. Because you talked about Franken. Somebody said, I wish I could explain why the leadership didn't understand this.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:25]
| Well, I know why. I just, it's stupid reasoning, but I know why. It's just not valid. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:38:32]
| We got someone saying, and you are both demonstrating critical thinking in real time. You are 100% correct to question why the establishment keeps running the absolute worst candidates, despite real people turning up in droves to support progressives like Bernie and Mamdani, politicians who are actually in line with the party's value. We had somebody say that the Dem charade is undeniable now and unsustainable. The young people see it so clearly. Exhibit A, support for Cuomo against a popular progressive and the progressive wins the primary. Establishment Dems need Trump and will continue to just hand wring as he dismantles democracy. Hatred fear of Trump is the Dem platform. They can't campaign on the party's ideals because they don't benefit the corporate donors. Republicans can rally their base and appease corporate donors at the same time because they want the same things. And then finally, the last comment on this one, Anthony Weiner, 2028. Just kidding.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:34]
| Oh, I'm sure. Just kidding. Are you kidding? I heard, I read somewhere that he was thinking about running for something.
|
Sam:
[1:39:42]
| No, no, no, no. He did run.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:44]
| Oh, he ran for this one. I didn't realize he was a dude.
|
Sam:
[1:39:48]
| And he did not do well.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:50]
| You think?
|
Sam:
[1:39:51]
| I think it was this.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:52]
| I thought it was something else.
|
Sam:
[1:39:56]
| Whatever he ran for, he did very, very badly. He got like just a couple percent or something. Anyway, he says, just kidding, but we've learned basically nothing. is his statement. And for some reason, that was only five, but it says there's seven comments. Let me... Let me check one more place, see if it's not showing up in one place, but it is the other. I don't know. No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We got more comments on the other one, too, with people talking about the economy and blah, blah, blah. Weird. Weird. Oh, does it? I don't know. I don't know why. Like, my dashboard here doesn't show all the comments, but there's more elsewhere. I don't know. Anyway, that's it for TikTok. And as usual, you can also go to our Patreon and give us money. if you like the show and appreciate it and want to help pay for my new car. The $25, $27 a month from the Patreon, I'm sure will go a long way towards whatever payment I need. Except, of course, we're saving that up for the next meetup. So never mind. Never mind. Or maybe I'll use it on my car. And that'll be my down payment.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:07]
| There you go. I'll be okay with that. That's fine. You need a car. I'm good with it. Yeah. That's good use of the money.
|
Sam:
[1:41:15]
| Yeah. This month's $25.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:18]
| I support the $25 going towards Sam's down payment.
|
Sam:
[1:41:25]
| Anyway, yeah. Go to our Patreon at various levels. We will mention you on the show. We will ring a bell. We will send you a postcard. We will send you a mug. And yes, I do still owe several people. I owe a couple postcards. I owe a mug, I think. I will eventually get to it. I have it on a list somewhere. I just keep never getting to the list, just like oil changes.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:45]
| Yeah, I noticed.
|
Sam:
[1:41:47]
| So, you know, when I met Sam.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:50]
| He had the dashboard of this Dodge Colt that he had. Like, what do you say?
|
Sam:
[1:41:54]
| It's still in the garage.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:55]
| Okay, this is the habit that I said. He had it in his dorm room, and the Dodge Colt died because of an oil. He just didn't have oil. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:42:04]
| Yes. Well, nobody had told me I needed to put oil in the damn thing. I had no idea.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:10]
| I will say that the massive improvement from then to now is that you did see a light that said that you were missing something and you tried to put it in versus before.
|
Sam:
[1:42:20]
| There you go.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:21]
| I mean, that's a huge, huge improvement.
|
Sam:
[1:42:24]
| There you go. And look, I was proud we got, we ended up getting that hose on.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:29]
| And listen, I will admit that I'm impressed that we were able to get that hose on. Unfortunately, the problem is that the hose didn't really, like I said. It was a valiant effort to do repair that actually didn't fix any of the problems.
|
Sam:
[1:42:45]
| Yeah, that should be the story of my life. Oh, well. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:53]
| Well, no, we got one more thing. We got one thing to slack.
|
Sam:
[1:42:56]
| Oh, yes, yes. The highlight from the slack. Go ahead, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:01]
| Anthropics Claude.
|
Sam:
[1:43:02]
| Oh yeah, we will invite you to, I didn't even say, we will invite you to Slack if you donate to the Patreon at $2 a month or more, or if you just ask. Okay, now.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:12]
| All right, Anthropics Claude stocked a fridge with metal cubes when it was put in charge of a snacks business. So if you're worried about your local potato convenience store may soon be replaced by an AI storefront, you can rest easy after Anthropics Claude AI had a hard time of running a mini fridge business. metal I mean you know what here's the thing I think you would be happy with.
|
Sam:
[1:43:37]
| We've talked about those tungsten cubes on the show before you.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:42]
| Get to the.
|
Sam:
[1:43:43]
| I have it on my Amazon wish list.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:46]
| Oh metal cubes look at that.
|
Sam:
[1:43:49]
| Well look here I want to be fair like because they make fun of I've seen lots of people making fun oh look the computer water metal cubes blah blah blah no here's what happened They, they had an internal Slack group where employees could ask for things they wanted at the snack thing. And some smart ass said, I want the key.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:10]
| Well, if the AI were really smart, hey, you know what? That isn't food.
|
Sam:
[1:44:19]
| But you know people might like it it's a.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:22]
| Veterinarian listen i will say that there is one thing i did get like a few years ago not metal cubes but for scotch for some reason like these little like cubes that i think were like kind of rocks that you're supposed to put them in the freezer to use those instead of ice to drink your scotch so we'll cool it down the The advantage, obviously, is that it won't melt. So it won't, you know, it doesn't mix water with your drink. So that's, so I guess, you know, this isn't like completely insane, but also, yeah, most people don't really need metal cubes in their fridge, I think.
|
Sam:
[1:45:05]
| Yeah, yeah. No, but here's the thing, too. Like, it also made a bunch of mistakes. Like, it was selling some products at a loss, you know. You know, they cut it off when it, they gave it a certain amount of money to play with, and they cut it off when it lost $25.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:22]
| That's pretty bad. That's pretty bad.
|
Sam:
[1:45:25]
| You know, it sort of, it dived initially, it lost a bunch of its money to start up. Then it started actually like, the curve started trending up a little bit, and then I forget exactly which thing. They said there was one particular decision it made that it just started plummeting. And, and like most of its losses were due to one particular purchase choice where it bought something expensive and was like giving it away.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:53]
| I love this. By the way, here's, I will say this, that it's pretty good at mimicking humans. I will say, because you get, man, let me tell you, I, one time I had to stop putting it. Listen, I took away all purchasing power from employees at the pharmacy when, when I took over, when I was like, when I, when I finished college. because, man, we had exactly that. Some people making these purchases of shit that was unsaleable, okay? And I'm like, I'm sorry. Why the fuck didn't we just fill up this shelf with this shit that doesn't sell? Well, the sales rep gave me a good, like, speech, and I'm like, nobody wants this. I had to, like, mark it down, like, 80% to get the shit to move because I just wanted it gone. Even if I just got 20 cents on the dollar at least, I got something. Instead of like it occupying an entire fucking shelf. So anyway.
|
Sam:
[1:46:52]
| Yeah. Okay. Maybe I should start an AI run shop as my next venture. Like quit my job, open a little bodega somewhere, get one of those little kiosks in the middle of the mall and just have an AI run.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:10]
| Kiosk at the middle of the mall when she first when she first came to the states let me tell you yeah that's a tough that's a rough business let me tell you something that's a fucking rough business well.
|
Sam:
[1:47:23]
| That's why i want to let.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:24]
| The eye run it you know you need us a little you know i i was just talking to people that we've got or we're selling these robotic kiosks now so basically just you know so people can walk up to the kiosk to go at a cell phone store so you can go over there, like do all your transaction talking to, some little like animated robot thing. So there you go.
|
Sam:
[1:47:48]
| It's good. Well, you're selling it. It's gotta be good, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:47:51]
| Oh, no, it's fantastic. What are you kidding me? It's the best damn thing. Best damn thing we made. What are you kidding? It's fantastic.
|
Sam:
[1:48:00]
| There you go.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:02]
| I'm like, yes, they're excellent. They're fantastic.
|
Sam:
[1:48:05]
| Okay. okay we are done thank you everybody have a great week and we will talk to you next time goodbye bye.
|
Sam:
[1:48:48]
| Hey, well, it's Sam from the future here, and I know several times during the show I asked for, you know, people to chime in on the Slack and maybe elsewhere on what I should do about my car. But, yeah, less than 12 hours after I recorded that and before I'm putting the episode out, I actually already bought the car. And I did indeed get an Ioniq 5. so it's been home almost 12 hours now i i drove it home i parked it i went to sleep i edited the podcast so i've only actually driven the new car once so far so far so good i like it.
|
Sam:
[1:49:33]
| Anyway yeah i already bought it so if you have any thoughts feel free to chime in anyway but as a bonus of actually getting to the end of the episode, you know that I already did this. Yeah, so I, yeah, I recorded the show, did a couple other things, then my wife was in touch with somebody she knows from her work that owns a dealership, owns a Hyundai dealership, and we were there shortly thereafter, did a test drive, they set up the deal for us, and of course they treated us well because they're a friend of my wife, and we did all the stuff. I went back and forth with Yvonne and text a few times to make sure we had a good deal and we were doing something that made sense. But yeah, the car is bought. Yeah, so there we go. Thanks all. Bye for real.
| |
|
