Automated Transcript
Sam:
[0:00]
| Hello, Mr. Bo.
|
Ivan:
[0:02]
| Are we on? We're on going on.
|
Sam:
[0:05]
| What do you think? What do you think? Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[0:08]
| What do I think of the app so far? Yeah, sure. I mean, I, I mean, it worked so far.
|
Sam:
[0:17]
| You probably don't have all the buttons I have because I don't.
|
Ivan:
[0:21]
| You're inviting all the buttons you have. No, I probably don't.
I don't know if you could tell, you know, that I'm going to say that the, the low light quality of my new camera, your new webcam is is just really the light.
Let me forget about low light light in any situation.
I'm still just in awe how well it works.
|
Sam:
[0:49]
| I don't know. This this is just weird because I can see you at all.
|
Ivan:
[0:53]
| Yeah. I see a Rubik's cube.
|
Sam:
[0:59]
| That's, um, it's a refrigerator, although it don't no longer works and it's not plugged in, but it, it, it stopped working before it was unplugged.
It's not that it's just not working cause it's unplugged. It actually just doesn't, it worked for a while.
|
Ivan:
[1:14]
| It was a very, it looks so that's the, that was the one that could hold a few sodas.
|
Sam:
[1:19]
| It could hold like three sodas. Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:22]
| Okay. But you have on standby. I mean, you know, right, right.
|
Sam:
[1:27]
| But eventually, eventually after a few years, it just stopped like actually making things cold.
|
Ivan:
[1:32]
| Kind of stuff happens, you know, I, uh, no, my, one of my ACs was broken.
So yeah, they finally fixed it today. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:49]
| Take a drink of water.
|
Ivan:
[1:50]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:51]
| Ready? Ready.
|
Ivan:
[1:52]
| Here it comes.
|
Sam:
[1:55]
| Of course, it's going to. This was instant whenever I tested it.
Come on. Oh, we're doing great so far. I hit the intro button. Come on. Think about it.
You know, I, I, I did extensive testing last weekend. Everything worked.
|
Ivan:
[2:12]
| Stop.
|
Sam:
[2:13]
| Hold on, let me stop, let me flip to this and, then, okay, wait, Oh, yeah. Wait, wait, no, no.
Welcome to Cremudgeons Corner for Friday, August 11th, 2023.
It is 240 UTC as we're starting to record, which for me on the West coast means Thursday night at 7 40 and on the East coast for Yvonne, it's 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 40 PM on, on Thursday evening.
Uh, so you're back after three weeks.
|
Ivan:
[3:09]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[3:11]
| Yes. And we will get into it in a second. The plan is we'll do our butt first.
Where Yvonne and I both have something lighter or whatever. And then.
We will do two more rounds where each of us pick a topic there.
You know, last last week there was like one big overwhelming thing.
I spent most of the show on it this week. Uh, there are a lot of things going on.
|
Ivan:
[3:36]
| Uh, the power ball. I mean, no, the mega millions. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[3:38]
| Because I do.
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Ivan:
[3:39]
| Did you, uh, do a number selection show?
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Sam:
[3:41]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[3:42]
| The whole show would have been, you know, just you figuring out with, uh, an algorithm, the apples may algorithm. You could have figured out the numbers.
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Sam:
[3:51]
| That's right. But, you know, uh, in the last, I won $8, I won 20.
|
Ivan:
[3:56]
| Oh, wow.
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Sam:
[3:57]
| You beat me.
How much, how much to get that 20?
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Ivan:
[4:04]
| Well, I, you, Jesus, you completely crushed for you. You spent $80 to get eight.
|
Sam:
[4:10]
| Well, now that was two drawings ago. The most recent drawing I spent 30 to get nothing. So if you put the two together, I spent 60 to get 20.
|
Ivan:
[4:22]
| You still beat me. I mean, you know, we were out and saw, you know, I told my wife was a supermarket, I asked her how much cash you got on you.
As you said, like 80 bucks. I'm like, buy them all. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Just, just, just, just buy them all.
|
Sam:
[4:40]
| Now the winner was in Florida.
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Ivan:
[4:41]
| So I presume it was, you know, the winner was in Florida. Yes.
So it's me and I'm here just to kind of throw the scent sent off, you know, everybody.
|
Sam:
[4:50]
| So nobody will figure it out.
|
Ivan:
[4:52]
| No, no, no. I don't want anybody to figure out that.
|
Sam:
[4:54]
| I, I got, I'm a billionaire now, you know, but after the single lump sum and taxes, you know, it wouldn't be that much anymore.
|
Ivan:
[5:04]
| Well, I wouldn't be a billionaire anyway. I made the commitment to my wife that if we were ever to win such an, an inordinate, you're giving a lot of it away.
I'm immediately putting basically the bulk of it into the foundation. Right.
OK, I mean, it's our it's the goal that we have.
I think that I think she has. Well, she's working on it a lot harder than I am right now, because I just don't have the time.
I'm supporting her financially, supporting the foundation financially as well.
So it's not exactly not doing that. You know, I think I've spoken about the foundation Manu for inclusion dot org. You know, if anybody interested to go there and check it out.
But but, you know, she has a she has an idea that that at first I thought it sounded a little bit kooky. But now I realize that it's not as crazy as it as it sounded.
Seeing some stuff that I saw in Europe related to how they are developing certain towns specifically to help elderly patients that have conditions like dementia or something.
|
Sam:
[6:12]
| Mm hmm.
|
Ivan:
[6:12]
| Something similar or something along those lines. I think I've seen something they can try to live a normal life.
|
Sam:
[6:16]
| Mm hmm.
|
Ivan:
[6:18]
| Um, with the protections surrounding them in the town, so.
They can. Be in in this town, but people aren't scared that they will leave town and disappear or get hurt or something.
It's structured like that. And my wife has an idea of something similar for kids with special needs.
Hmm. More, you built a town just like that. And I thought at first it was nuttier, but then I finally realized that in Europe, they are building those towns for elderly folks that, you know, need.
Assistance, but not to have them in just locked in some damn building.
Right. And because the population, an amount of people needing that level of help is rising substantially as people are getting older.
|
Sam:
[7:11]
| Right. And, and for special needs in general, one of the, I mean, all of the needs are different, right?
You know, uh, how much support is needed varies dramatically from individual to individual and depends on what kind of condition they have, whether it's physical or mental or both or whatever.
Um, but you could certainly see a place where you do.
Systematic accommodations in a way that's not sort of surrounded by stigma or is not like lock them up and it's not lock them up.
|
Ivan:
[7:44]
| Exactly. That's the whole point of it. Yes. That, that is exactly the whole point. I saw this is, uh, the, the Dutch are doing this, uh, right now. They have built a series of towns.
I think it's the it's either the Dutch or the Danish or Norway.
One of the one of the I'm pretty sure it's the I think it's the Dutch.
OK, but, you know, and so now I saw it, I'm like, well, that idea is not so farfetched now to think about it. They actually done it.
|
Sam:
[8:14]
| OK, I mean, they they now is this your topic?
|
Ivan:
[8:18]
| No, my topic is right now. I guess, you know, well, number one is why the hell was that? Well, I was out for a couple of weeks, OK?
|
Sam:
[8:26]
| On vacation. Three. You missed three weeks of the show.
|
Ivan:
[8:29]
| I missed three weeks. Yeah. So, you know, a couple of them were were on purpose.
We went on vacation to the British Virgin Islands. I you know, the connectivity was there was connectivity, but it wasn't great.
My cell phone, my cell phone was connected on a 3G network.
|
Sam:
[8:49]
| Nice.
|
Ivan:
[8:51]
| Okay. Well, it's been shut off in the U.S.
Basically, and I'm like, you know, was actually shut off.
|
Sam:
[9:00]
| I mean, it's been years since I'd actually seen it.
|
Ivan:
[9:02]
| Right. Right. And then I see my phone, right.
And then I see my phone all of a sudden just say 3G and I'm like, whoa, you know, um, you know, that's something.
Um, look, it's better than it used to be. I still remember going out there before.
And I mean, when we went to the U.S. Virgin Islands, OK, we took cell phones that I had. Those worked in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but they did not work in the British Virgin Islands, which are just further out.
OK, at all. OK, there was a roaming agreement that they had back then.
And I remember that. I think we did a podcast, but not the podcast.
We did the live radio show for curmudgeon's quarter from.
|
Sam:
[9:49]
| That's right. I remember we tried to do the boat.
|
Ivan:
[9:51]
| We actually did this, and I am sure that cost me.
Holy shit. It must have cost like a couple of it must have cost a couple of hundred bucks.
|
Sam:
[10:00]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[10:01]
| OK. Due to the minutes that he used on the on the cell phone.
So, yeah, it was stupidly expensive, but we did it was fun, whatever.
But the one thing is that on those islands you had years back, I had to buy a separate phone to use over there if I wanted phone service.
Otherwise, my phones just would not work at all. Okay. Um, over there.
So now at least it connects in three G.
So that's, that's an improvement. Um, definitely.
Um, and so, so that was the thing.
I mean, we went, we went out there, uh, for vacation and we had a, uh, a pretty good time and then I got back home and, um, I started by working on a computer and I'm checking some stuff.
And it's a little bit sluggish, but it was working. And I went to open iPhoto. Is it called iPhoto?
|
Sam:
[10:58]
| Now it's just called photos now.
|
Ivan:
[10:59]
| It's just called photos now. OK, it's called photos.
|
Sam:
[11:02]
| I photo died like years ago, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[11:05]
| I'm sure I did. I still got it stuck in my head. And anyway, photos.
And there's that lean photos also to crashed. OK, it's just the computer just crashed.
And I tried to reboot once and it rebooted, sort of, and I say sort of because it didn't finish rebooting. Like I tried to open any apps and all they would do is just sit there and hang and not open.
|
Sam:
[11:31]
| Hmm. Um, not good.
|
Ivan:
[11:34]
| I mean, they would just, I tried to open mail and it said, your fought, your files are being used by somebody else. I'm like somebody else. What the fuck?
Use somebody else like right here, damn it.
And no applicant. I mean, most of the they would just hang. I try to open a folder in the finder.
It would take like ten, five minutes to show any of the files.
I tried rebooting again.
Then I tried recovery mode.
And I tried to go to use this first day. At first, I thought I ran it on a computer, and then I realized that, Wait a minute!
I just ran it on the time machine drive. The internal drive is not showing up at all. I mean, at all.
At this first aid, it would not show up, period.
And I'm like, fuck. So I, I try to reboot again this time.
Worse than all of them. I got just a circle with a line across saying with some thing from Apple, go to this website.
|
Sam:
[12:41]
| Oops.
|
Ivan:
[12:43]
| That's it. It wouldn't do anything else. And I'm like, oh, shit, well, that hard drive just completely died. Mm hmm.
Now, the reality is.
That I had already. A few weeks ago, when after the WWDC, Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.
Yep. It come out with the next version of the operating system, and they announced which machines would be orphaned. OK, and Apple is very quickly orphaned Intel machines.
They're just, you know what? Screw this.
|
Sam:
[13:21]
| Well, your machine was like, what, five years old, six?
|
Ivan:
[13:25]
| It was five. OK, now it was it was the iMac 1997 model, which the model was six years old.
|
Sam:
[13:36]
| Ninety seven. No, I don't think.
|
Ivan:
[13:38]
| No, not 97, I keep doing this, I wish it was 97.
The what was the 97 iMac? Oh, the 97 iMac was the one with the plastic and the colors and the hockey puck mouse. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[13:50]
| Nice, nice.
|
Ivan:
[13:51]
| No, that would have been good. Yes, I would have got a lot of use out of that. Yes. No, it's not 97.
I keep doing this, right? Keep going back like 20.
What I mean, like 2017, my mind wants it to be 97. Okay, all right.
Yeah, we're like 2007 I keep going back, you know, it's so it was a 2017 model, but I purchased it in 2018 When that computer died, okay And so it was five years almost five years exactly And I mean look I saw that announcement and I'm like, well, well fine mine. You, get a new damn computer soon. You know, I really the last time I had one computer that was orphaned like that, I basically I spent a little bit of time on it.
I was like, OK, I can't do this. I'm going to get the new fucking computer.
So I knew it was going to happen soon. OK.
|
Sam:
[14:51]
| Yeah. Like, I think for the most part, like I used to have like I've mentioned this on a show before.
I used to have a regimented schedule where I was like, I'm rotating like every year, somebody in the family gets something because by the time we get around like four years, the four-year-old computer is going to be painful and it's going to need to be upgraded and blah, blah, blah.
That's less true than it used to be.
Certainly not with phones at this point, But, but also computers, like unless you dramatically change what you're using it for, like you can go a long time before you have to upgrade.
But one of those markers for me is still like, if you can't run the most recent operating system that I'm like, you know, you gotta be out.
|
Ivan:
[15:48]
| I mean, that, that was it. I'm like, I said, look, I, that's, that's a showstopper for me. Okay. So so I was like, I was going to do it, but, you know, I didn't.
The hotel I stayed at was very expensive. Look, I have to I have to say that I think that as a hotel built, I had never gotten such a high hotel.
|
Sam:
[16:15]
| Well, and you mentioned the flights to this place were expensive, too.
|
Ivan:
[16:18]
| The flights were expensive, but I went out a few weeks back.
Right, but I have to say that I had never.
Gotten a hotel bill that big on checkout.
Okay, so I just finished signing that dead.
I get home and my fucking computer, you know, so I'm not I'm not really in the mood to be buying a new fucking computer.
Okay, after I signed that after I paid that check and so I get that and I get home and not only is the computer dead, but the air conditioner in my living room is is is fried.
|
Sam:
[17:00]
| OK, it was frozen.
|
Ivan:
[17:02]
| It wasn't working. Now, now on the AC front, I did have an I do have a warranty that had not run out yet. OK. Oh, nice, nice.
I the company I buy from guarantees them for ten years, including parts of labor.
I have an annual service contract and ten years will be next March.
|
Sam:
[17:27]
| So right on time.
|
Ivan:
[17:29]
| Yes, like right on time. OK. And so I did not have to pay any anything at all to get the AC fixed.
OK, because the air conditioner. I mean, if I had to buy a fucking listen, if I did that trip, and had to buy the computer And the one thing is that, yes, I got a Mac studio with a studio display and I really did not want to skimp.
Right on this computer right now, because I expect to hold this computer longer than I did either of my two of my Macs in large part because Apple's now offering Apple care that you can purchase after the first three years.
|
Sam:
[18:14]
| OK, yes, yes. You can continue it indefinitely as long as you pay monthly.
|
Ivan:
[18:19]
| And it's not expensive, OK? And I'm just like, look, as long as I can get OS updates, I plan to keep this damn thing.
OK. Right. Right. And so I did not want to skimp on it, but that meant that, you know, yeah, it was it was a pretty hefty price. It was pretty hefty. OK.
|
Sam:
[18:40]
| I mean, those studio displays are pretty expensive on their own.
Yes. And the studio max, even the bottom line of them is still pretty hefty, and if you start specking them up.
Now, I I think you went somewhere in the middle, right? You didn't like max this thing out.
|
Ivan:
[18:59]
| Well, no, I'm maxing it Jesus Christ maxing it out.
It's a fucking car. No, no. No, I I mean I did not max it out because it gets You know Get like the price of a car at that point You know, no, no, I did not max it out But I definitely did not get them.
I definitely did not get the baseline either either.
|
Sam:
[19:21]
| Okay. And like those of you who've been listening for a while, know that I guess it was early last year.
Mine died completely. I'd been, I'd been like struggling and trying to keep it going longer and longer.
Cause I was hoping I could make it toll the new IMAX or what turned out to be the studio came out.
I did not make it. It completely died and I ended up getting a Mac mini absolute bottom of the absolute bottom of the line, um, in part because I like one, I was budget constrained, but two, I could have gone a little higher than bottom of the line.
I could have gone a little bit higher expense wise, but I needed it right then.
Right. And the only thing that I could get, like walk in the store that that day and walk out with it was the bottom of the line model.
So that's what I got. And ever, ever since, Ever since I've been like mostly like I've actually been surprised at how well this thing has worked but I've I had to switch to booting off an external SSD because the one that came with it was just way too small and The it only came with 8 gigabytes of memory, which is way too low. I'm constantly having memory problems.
So One of these days when the budget allows I will be upgrading to a studio as well, but that's not this year So I am very jealous Yvonne of your studio now one thing if that and and what Sam mentioned was critical okay, I went and I Did not want to do what happened to Sam.
|
Ivan:
[20:55]
| Which was that. I could go to the store and get a Mac studio, but it was also relatively low spec.
OK, they are not. You know, it used to be you could get a machine at the at the store.
And if you wanted to add RAM, you could add it there. But they've made these now that you can't do that. OK, you have to basically order it with it on it.
So, um, damn it. I was like.
Shit, I'm going to be with, I'm going to have to wait a week to get this computer.
|
Sam:
[21:27]
| There's just, I, I don't want to, and the other thing, like back when I had my issue, like it wasn't even a week, like it was like right when it was when the like supply line issue were like the worst possible thing, it was like a two month wait.
If it was like huge.
Um, I mean, it was a little bit different.
It was a little bit different depending on what config you got, but like it was It was, it was insanely long and I suppose I could have used my wife's iMac for a while, but I wanted something right away.
|
Ivan:
[22:01]
| Listen, I was on the same thing last week where I'm like, well, I could start using her computer and I'm like, Oh God, look now, now look at, I told Sam, look, look, I ordered a computer.
My wife's going to be out of town.
Uh, it's going to be here, you know, should be here the following Monday.
Um, and so my wife's going to be out of town and I'm like, my son said, Well, can we go to Disney for the for the weekend? Because school started today. OK, nice.
And so I was like, fine, let's just go whatever, you know. And then they delivered a computer early.
OK, they wound up delivering it on on a Friday. It was supposed to be delivered on a Monday.
They did deliver it. And I did have asked our property manager to take the box because, well, first of all, to do one thing, I signed digitally the FedEx release form because they won't leave it.
They right now for this kind of stuff, they're not even gambling with. They won't leave it.
|
Sam:
[23:05]
| Yeah, you don't want somebody grabbing something like that off your port.
|
Ivan:
[23:07]
| No, too much for high value. So so I left the release form and I asked our property manager to pick it up and put it at the at the management office.
And since I'm the president, I could go in that night, get it.
So I got in on Sunday night and, you know, one of the guards that, you know, that that works for us, I went, I said, Look, let me have the keys to the office.
So I was able to get it on Sunday night from the office, which is what I wanted to do, because I knew that restoring the time machine backup was going to be a very lengthy process. OK, right. And so I went and I got it. I plugged it in.
You know, it I fired it up.
Did not take that long to just start the process, but it took 10 hours to do to restore.
|
Sam:
[23:58]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[23:58]
| Okay. And so it was 10 hours. And so by at 9 a.m. the next morning, it finished.
But, you know, it finished and rebooted.
And time machine had done a great job of backing up everything up until it died.
And so while I'm when it fired back up, everything was pretty much back in its place. So, yeah.
|
Sam:
[24:22]
| OK, so like, let's wrap this up quickly. You've been using it for a while. Happy.
|
Ivan:
[24:28]
| Oh, yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[24:30]
| Oh, God.
|
Ivan:
[24:31]
| Yeah.
You know, it's look, I I have an Intel MacBook Pro from work, OK, as well. That sits just, you know, I sits over here to a side that I use for work.
And I mean, it's relatively new. It's I mean, it's what it's not even two years old. I mean, I think bought it for me new when I joined, joined the company. And let me tell you.
This is way faster, like in every way that this relatively two year old computer.
I mean, it's just just everything just every little thing just happens better.
Nice, you know, and so the colors on the display, I realize, especially when you watch video, but you realize, oh my God, the colors look amazing on this display, okay?
It's just, that shines through very clearly.
But this, look, the speed of just everything on Apple Silicon, I mean, I remember having tried some of these new Apple Silicon machines at the store and I realized that they don't need much RAM.
As the Intel wants to run quickly, which is why you've been able to survive on a right, a eight gigs of RAM. OK, because because it doesn't need as much.
And it's I remember a triumph just wow. Is this just the devil?
Everything is so snappy, you know, not.
|
Sam:
[26:20]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[26:21]
| And, you know, and and that's that's been the reality.
Everything just happens with just a lot more grace and ease.
I never hear the fan going at all.
I mean, it doesn't matter how many things are going on. He just, it's just never.
It's just never I mean, look, I put 64 gigs of RAM on the damn thing.
Got the M2 ultra processor.
I mean, it's got 24 freaking cores for God's sakes, you know?
I mean, what the hell? I mean, this thing is just not really.
It's like, what are you doing? Excel? Yod. The hell? Whatever.
Listening to music, podcasting.
Listen, right now I've got, you know, Excel, chat, you know, know, uh, music open, we're doing the podcast, uh, Safari, whatever processor, how much idle 92%.
Beautiful. 92% basically. I don't. So yeah. Okay.
|
Sam:
[27:20]
| So I am jealous. You are happy. Uh, and, uh, excellent.
|
Ivan:
[27:29]
| So I did say that if I wouldn't a lottery thing, I would have bought you one, but you know, shit, I didn't win the damn lottery.
I would, well, you know, I, I mean, I would've got hell forget the studio.
I would've got you the damn pro. Fuck it. I'm like, you know, what do we get? One of those, the ones that you backs out with everything, $128,000, I think configuration, you know, you know, like here, Sam, there you go. What the hell? Yeah.
|
Sam:
[27:51]
| Those I, you know, there must be somebody out there who actually needs that, but I don't know who, you know, I don't know.
|
Ivan:
[28:02]
| Well, somebody that's like, I don't know.
|
Sam:
[28:04]
| Maybe somebody who's a video production that was doing all the special effects for I don't maybe maybe even those kind of people say the Maxed out studios do what they need for the moment and right now, but yeah, whatever the Mac Pro Whatever fine.
Anyway, so We've gone pretty long in this first segment, but I will do one one media thing real quick I mentioned a couple weeks ago on the show while you were out Yvonne that I'm not doing movies and TV until the strikes over.
|
Ivan:
[28:31]
| Oh Oh, strike, strike, strike. Yeah, we are for the strikers.
I'm with the strikers, but you know, the one thing is, look, people lose the perspective. The strikers are not bad. they're fighting for.
Has a lot of repercussions across everything. Yes.
|
Sam:
[28:51]
| The, and Ed and I talked about this two weeks ago, but yeah, there's a, there's the AI stuff.
There's all kinds of stuff. There's all kinds of stuff going on there.
And the thing that people also forget is this.
Doesn't just like the big movie stars. There are lots of people who are, you know, way, way down on the pay scales that are getting screwed over by this stuff.
And, uh, and, and both, both on the writer side and on the actor side.
But anyway, I have I do have one book left on my list.
|
Ivan:
[29:20]
| A book.
|
Sam:
[29:21]
| Ah, now, technically speaking, should I write a book?
|
Ivan:
[29:24]
| I should have talked. Fuck. I should have talked about it.
|
Sam:
[29:27]
| You save it for now.
|
Ivan:
[29:27]
| I got to put it. I got to say I got I got to put down. I did read a book on vacation. That's one of the things that happens. And if I go on vacation, I wind up reading books.
|
Sam:
[29:34]
| Oh, there you go.
|
Ivan:
[29:36]
| It's always great. I love, you know, yeah, I got through a book.
|
Sam:
[29:39]
| So I I have mentioned so preview. You will do a book at some point in the next. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
|
Ivan:
[29:45]
| I got to make a note of that. Okay, so make a note.
|
Sam:
[29:48]
| So in any case, I have mentioned on the show before that Alex and I, my son Alex, are working our way through...
|
Ivan:
[29:57]
| Alex, the Alex.
|
Sam:
[29:59]
| Alex, the Alex.
|
Ivan:
[30:00]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[30:00]
| Alex thing. Yep. Anyway, we are working our way through the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
And, uh, we got to the point where there's inserted in between the actual novels is a short story.
Um, it's after the one called, uh, what order did they come in?
Um, hold on. I'll get it right. Cause I always like screw this up.
Okay. Okay, it is between So Long and Thanks for All the Fish in 1984, which is book number four in the trilogy, and before Mostly Harmless, which is book number five in the trilogy.
At least that's where they included it in the compendium altogether volume that we've been reading.
Anyway, it's a short story, it's called Young Zaphod Plays It Safe.
One of the characters from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is Zaphod Beeblebrox, who's this dude with two heads. He becomes president of the galaxy.
I guess he is president when we first meet him.
And he does stuff. Anyway, this is sort of a prequel where it's one of his adventures when he was young.
And he's helping some people scavenge a cargo ship that has something super, super dangerous in it.
Okay. Spoilers.
|
Ivan:
[31:33]
| Spoilers.
|
Sam:
[31:34]
| I am going to give a spoiler. The super, super dangerous thing that escaped from the ship at the end and ended up on earth was Ronald Reagan.
|
Ivan:
[31:48]
| Wow.
|
Sam:
[31:50]
| Although it was never explicitly said in the story, it was obvious from the context that it it was Ronald Reagan and apparently it was made more explicit.
The actor. Exactly. Yes. Good job, Doc Brown.
|
Ivan:
[32:06]
| Thank you.
|
Sam:
[32:08]
| But yes. And so like I'll give it a thumb sideways.
I've talked before about how as we've gone on in this series, it's sort of obvious that the guy was getting tired of it a little bit.
The short story was actually OK. I mean, it was at least short, you know, but, uh, it's sort of, it wasn't, it wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad.
|
Ivan:
[32:33]
| Speaking of, uh, Asimov books, there weren't there.
|
Sam:
[32:36]
| We were not speaking of Asimov books.
|
Ivan:
[32:38]
| What? No. Well, sci-fi books, whatever. Close enough. So that's a big, uh, wasn't there some sci-fi movie series coming out based on some books, uh, that happens all the time?
|
Sam:
[32:51]
| Which one are you talking?
|
Ivan:
[32:52]
| No, there was a new one coming out now that people were talking a lot about now.
Of course, we're not up to current events, so why the father of four would want to know?
|
Sam:
[33:02]
| Well, there are several, like, I mean, you mentioned Asimov.
Of course, Apple has something based on his foundation series, very loosely. I did see that.
|
Ivan:
[33:11]
| I did see that. Yeah, my wife is watching that one.
|
Sam:
[33:14]
| Are you also, or are you talking the Avatar series? The sequel came out and there are more coming soon?
|
Ivan:
[33:20]
| I don't think that's it. No, I think I'm just, I think I don't, I don't know anything.
|
Sam:
[33:25]
| Look, there's science fiction movies coming out all the time.
|
Ivan:
[33:29]
| Yvonne, I don't know anything. Yeah, it's all science. You know, it's all the same.
|
Sam:
[33:34]
| To hell, you know, are you talking Oppenheimer or Barbie?
|
Ivan:
[33:38]
| Oh, no. Have you watched either of them?
|
Sam:
[33:43]
| I have not. No, I, I, I have zero interest in going to, Although my wife texted earlier today that maybe she wants to see one of the two this weekend.
But to be clear, her text did not invite me. She asked me if I thought that Alex might want to watch one of them with her.
So I don't know if... I guess I'm not invited.
|
Ivan:
[34:08]
| Maybe you lucked out.
|
Sam:
[34:10]
| I don't know. Both of those... Well, let's not promote striked work. work.
|
Ivan:
[34:16]
| Listen, let me just say, listen, I still remember the last time I got dragged to damn movie theater to see a fucking movie I didn't want to watch, which was Twilight.
My wife made me go like a Friday, like a 10 o'clock at night to go see this movie. Listen, yeah, 10 minutes into the movie, I was asleep, okay?
|
Sam:
[34:37]
| I mean, literally, I was just, did you at least get a good nap out of it? Maybe some popcorn?
|
Ivan:
[34:42]
| Slept, I slept for about 40 minutes.
I remember something like that. And I remember that I woke up.
And it seemed to me that nothing had fucking happened. God, if I remember correctly, there was a wedding going on and the fucking wedding hadn't ended after four.
I mean, half the movie is gone and the one it's not over. And I'm like, you know, what the fuck? I fell asleep like.
I now at this theater, they had a bar. I went to the bar. I just had it like, look, I'm going to.
I got to go to the bar, grab a drink. I'll come back a little later.
They were still getting married. Those bastards.
Yeah. I think you've mentioned this experience before, Yvonne, but, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't go to what just shows you is I don't go to the movies a lot.
|
Sam:
[35:29]
| Yeah. So actually I wouldn't mind seeing either one of those movies.
|
Ivan:
[35:32]
| I, they've both gotten some good props, but anyway, but at the theater, which, do you really want to go to the theater to watch this?
|
Sam:
[35:39]
| I'd be... As long as it wasn't crowded, I'd be okay with it.
We have gone to see a couple movies in the theater in the last year, and it was okay.
But both of the ones we saw were long enough after the release, so there were just a handful of people in the theater. It wasn't like it was crowded. I would not want to be in a crowded theater.
|
Ivan:
[36:07]
| Want to be in the crowd. I think I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, not that long ago.
|
Sam:
[36:10]
| Okay. That is on my list too, and eventually we will talk about it, but not today.
|
Ivan:
[36:13]
| And I, but I went to see it and, uh, it was an okay time, but I was like, you know, I could have perfectly watched this at home.
|
Sam:
[36:23]
| Yeah, no, I feel like that for most things, But like, I was okay going to the theater to see stuff, you know?
You get the popcorn, you get the drink, you know, of course you're, you're, you're getting like other beverages, but like, I know I like the popcorn and the soda, you know?
|
Ivan:
[36:45]
| So I mean, I think my whole thing is that of course I can do both popcorn and soda at home too.
|
Sam:
[36:50]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[36:53]
| I mean, I mean, that's my point. I think the one thing I found it's, it's one of those things where I, I remember when I was younger, uh, I, at first I did this and then I realized realized I avoided doing a movie date.
Okay. Because I did this a couple of times. I realized a movie date is a terrible date because you don't get to talk to each other or interact.
You're just watching. Oh, and, and if, if it happens, like you get the person that can't follow the damn movie, it keeps asking you all this shit about the movie while it's happening. That's not good either.
|
Sam:
[37:29]
| Well, at least it tells you right away that that's not the person for you.
|
Ivan:
[37:34]
| That's well, OK, so that that may be what you're saying is a good filter.
Yes. Well, I'm not dating anymore. So, OK, so I don't really need this.
But for all of any of you doing that, you know, look, take Sam Stiffs. He's right.
If you take him out to the damn movie and they won't stop asking you fucking questions about the damn movie, then, yeah, that's not the right person to be because you're like, Oh, come on.
|
Sam:
[37:59]
| Unless, unless, unless you are the kind of person who likes chatting throughout the entire movie yourself.
|
Ivan:
[38:04]
| And then maybe I'm sure that doesn't bother anybody at the movie.
I'm sure everybody's going to be thrilled with you guys at the fucking movie theater.
|
Sam:
[38:13]
| Yes. OK, let's take a break.
And when we get back from this break, we will start alternating more newsy type topics.
|
Ivan:
[38:23]
| Newsy!
|
Sam:
[38:24]
| Newsy! Newsy-poosy! Yeah!
|
Ivan:
[38:27]
| Ploosy!
|
Sam:
[38:28]
| Let's see if my button to start the break works this time.
Okay, we are back. So, um, Yvonne, I believe it is your turn.
What's your first actual newsy fucking turn? Yeah. Cause you, you, you talked about your vacation and then I talked about my book and now, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[39:54]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[39:55]
| Did I actually, I said thumb sideways, right? It was fun. It was some sideways sideways. Yes.
|
Ivan:
[39:59]
| All right. I'm going to talk about the Hawaii fire. Okay.
|
Sam:
[40:04]
| Yeah. So I'm only in the Hawaii fueled wildfire is how I heard it described.
|
Ivan:
[40:11]
| Well, yes. I mean, the whole thing is that the winds, you know, definitely whipped up a wildfire into hitting town.
I heard that there was a bad wildfire about five, seven years ago.
Did I remember that also hit Maui and a few people were talking about how One of the things that is feeding these wildfires is non-native species stuff.
Yeah. Which, of grass specifically, which I've seen how down here in South Florida.
|
Sam:
[40:48]
| Which have been planted by various people for like decorative purposes and they just liked it better than what was native and blah blah blah.
|
Ivan:
[40:55]
| Yeah. And you know, like down here in South Florida we've been hit with a whole bunch of issues related to non-native species and like what of plants and animals like the fucking iguanas which are just.
|
Sam:
[41:08]
| Yeah, you mentioned them before.
|
Ivan:
[41:11]
| Terrible pests. And but we have an issue with also vegetation.
I think one of the one of the worst ones that we've got is with. Oh, God, damn trees.
Not banyans. Oh. God. Ficus trees, ficus, ficus. OK, the ficus trees are not native at all.
|
Sam:
[41:40]
| I think you complained about these two once before. Some problem you were having.
|
Ivan:
[41:44]
| Yeah, I just ripped out more recently and community and replace them with native species.
And I'm sure we've been trying to do as much of that as possible over time, because, the ficus, in order to keep them healthy, require a whole bunch of chemicals and they use a lot of water and a whole bunch of stuff just not good.
OK, so, um, we've been replacing those.
I've been trying to do as much as possible with that. In some cases, it's just not possible. But, you know, the ones that we can, we we do. And you see the impact of that on the nature all over the place.
And you see what happened in Maui, where you've got a combination of.
Those non-native species together with a, global warming together with a hurricane that also intensities of those are increasing due to global warming and you got a disaster of epic proportions.
Like I had been in Lahaina, I've only visited Hawaii once, but the first place that where I visited was in Lahaina because is.
It was back in 2000. She's 2007. Yeah. Yeah. 1997. No, this time, I mean, 2007.
This time, I actually went and like, you know, remember correctly.
So it's a lovely town. So nice.
And, you know, they have the dock there, we take the boats, and we were actually staying in Lanai during that week. But we love, You know, we went back and forth a few times and Lahaina was was nice. People were friendly, said lovely town.
And it's just that it got.
Scorched so quickly. Yeah, I mean, it's just I mean, the town is gone.
Yeah, the whole damn town is gone.
It's not just that a few buildings got burnt. I mean, it's like, you know, people just kind of look like it looked like it was a scene from like the Ukraine war.
And you looked at it. You know, the.
The reality is that with climate change and these things that are happening and then you add other manmade effects that you add to it, unfortunately, we're going to see more of this.
It's just, you know, I mean, until we are able to turn the tide, Thank you.
On the stuff that we're doing to warm the planet, I mean, this is just going to keep happening and keep happening at an even worse scale.
|
Sam:
[44:30]
| Yeah. And I mean, people, I mentioned a few weeks back, a few months back, I don't even know, like how some of the scientists are now saying that at least the time to recover after we stop pumping carbon into the atmosphere is shorter than they used to think it was.
But just to be clear, that means it's going to be a number of decades instead of a number of centuries.
Correct. But it's still like, it's not like you stop pumping carbon into the air and things are better the next day.
No, it's going to take several decades until, yeah, we get- And even then, it's several decades until it stops going up and starts going down.
|
Ivan:
[45:11]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[45:12]
| You still have a ways to get back to. So in the meantime, first of all, yes, we have to be doing stuff, we have to be doing more stuff than we have been, etc.
But also, it is undeniable at this point that adaptation is also part of what has to happen. We have to start...
There's no way around it. You have to realize that there are some places where it's just going to be a lot harder to live. There are some places where you could live without extensive technology backing it up, and now you're...
Like, there are places where you could could live without air conditioning that now you'd be insane not to have air conditioning.
|
Ivan:
[45:49]
| Yeah, no, totally.
|
Sam:
[45:53]
| And hell, even like up here in Seattle where it's not that bad yet, like when we arrived here, 17 and a half years ago or so, like the word from everybody was nobody has air conditioning, nobody, because you never need it maybe once a year you need it.
And it's, so it's just not worth it. It's a waste of money because yeah, you get one day that's hot. You just live with that day and you move on. Right.
Um, now like we got a heat pump for our house, like, I don't know, five years ago now, five or six years ago now.
Love it. Like it basically means that you can't tell when it gets hot outside.
Now, you know, the people in the house will still argue over what temperature we like the best, but the point is like it gets hot outside, it stays the same inside, you know, because we got, you know, a nice heat pump system.
And I hear more and more people talking about at the very least getting like window units or portable AC or whatever.
And you start to hear about like, well, now this is something that when you're picking an apartment or a house, you're looking at, sure.
|
Ivan:
[47:08]
| It's a, it's an, it's expensive. The systems are expensive.
|
Sam:
[47:11]
| Whereas 20 years ago, you weren't, you know, because it just, because of the climate, like it wasn't a big deal.
Like if it had it, maybe it'd be like, oh, okay, that's a nice whatever.
But it wasn't on the list of, you know, things that made a real difference in your decision.
Now it is. Um, and that's in a place that's relatively mild compared to like, I mean, I can't imagine like what Phoenix has been going through this summer, you know, like a month in a row, over 110 degrees every day.
|
Ivan:
[47:44]
| Today, today was probably the hottest day that we have had this year here.
It was 97 degrees. And I know that when I was driving around in my car to get my son this afternoon from school, the temperature was reading consistently over 100 degrees.
You know, because, yeah, it's big 97, but, you know, on top of pavement at whatnot and that kind of stuff, yeah, pavement in the sun.
Yeah, yeah, it was, you know, it was reading over 100. I remember that I got out of the car to go to go get him. And I mean, I could feel, wow, this is hot.
Okay, and you know and I'm pretty.
I can weather heat okay like i went to disney i'm outside walking all day in 90 degree weather i can weather this okay you know but but damn it i mean i can still feel holy shit this is you know i mean hell i'm weathered phoenix for god's sakes you know jesus i but so i can weather it but it doesn't mean i can't feel that this listen this is hot there are people that can't can't handle this.
OK, you know, I grew up in this, you know, I used to go to schools that were it was like 90 degrees outside. There was no damn air conditioning.
Right. You know, so, you know, suck it up, buttercup.
So we had to do, you know, but.
|
Sam:
[49:23]
| Well, but it's going to it's going to affect where people choose to live.
It's going to affect my migration patterns like where where whenever somebody is thinking about where to take a job, It's going to be one of the considerations from an international point of view.
There are whole countries that are going to have really hard time because it is going to affect crops and all this kind of stuff.
|
Ivan:
[49:44]
| Like those all are all also things going back to adaptation.
You know, one of the things like right now, the Dutch right now, do you know that the Dutch are the number one in production of vegetables in all of Europe, but they're doing it all in enclosed vertical hydroponics and stuff.
|
Sam:
[50:00]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[50:00]
| Yeah. It's all vertical farms.
|
Sam:
[50:03]
| This is one of the things actually my, my, my wife has got, you know, a bug that she's been investigating hydroponics and aquaponics and all that kind of stuff as, as, as part of her job as a state legislator in terms of like how to encourage these things and make them because here's because they use a lot less resources.
|
Ivan:
[50:22]
| They're more durable. They use a lot less resources.
You know, you're talking about the issues that the West has with water.
Okay. You know, you plant using that versus traditional farming, what are use goes downs by over 90% and most of the water use they have out there in the West is farming.
|
Sam:
[50:43]
| Yeah. Now how exactly that works depends on the crop and blah, blah, blah. But yes, absolutely.
They're, they're technological things that can help.
Um, and you know, it's just a matter of, you know, a lot of, And we've talked about this for years, Yvonne, there's a certain amount of this stuff that government could be encouraging and helping to sort of get ahead of the curve.
But at a certain point, the economics just change in a way that people start doing it anyway, because the technology develops to a certain point, the old way becomes more expensive, and so they just start flipping over. So like, you know, when you've got.
When, when getting water is getting more and more difficult in certain dry areas, right? And suddenly the methods that use less water become more attractive.
|
Ivan:
[51:35]
| Exactly. That's that's that that's what happens, which I think it's so important that, um, water restrictions take, take place for the West because, you know, I keep looking at, you know, you're drying out the fucking salt lake and I'm like, goddammit, you know, what the hell?
You know, we used to bitch and talk about the Russians draining the Caspian Sea.
God damn it You know, we're fucking almost doing the same thing here.
The fuck is wrong with people we need to you know, we can't do this shit and There are options is the problem there weren't options then, you know, whatever but doing these old inefficient methods That just you know obliterate resources like they're infinite it's just stupid right by the way while I was on vacation a couple of things one is the temperature there on that island was always pretty much between 80 to 85 degrees day or daytime or night okay so during daytime here today was like low 80s it was great with low humidity the second thing is that my my my brother's sister-in-law was there now I think I've I've mentioned her a long time here to show.
My brother-in-law's sister is one of the scientists that was at the damn super accelerator lab in Switzerland, discovered the Higgs boson.
Okay, all right, yeah, at CERN, okay? So one of the conversations that we had, so she is one of the preeminent physicists right now in the world, okay?
So the discussion that we were having was about fusion, okay, all right?
Okay, so this was her take on this like right now is talking about climate change and what what the deal is with that Her take is that at most in 50 years She sees the way that the experience i've been going.
It's going to be viable Okay Some people are saying that she's she was complaining and some people say 20 She's like, I think it's bullshit. I think they're being optimistic.
|
Sam:
[53:40]
| I think it's going to take 50 now the the the the joke on fusion of course is that it's been 20 to 30 years away for the last 50 years.
|
Ivan:
[53:51]
| That's true. I get that. But I think that in this case, because they've start.
But well, the thing is that she's already been working on experiments where they have already been able to be regularly generating more than they are putting in now.
The amount has been small. It took we're talking about the lasers and the things and the setup that it's taken to get that to work. But they are they are finally being able to do that consistently. Okay.
|
Sam:
[54:20]
| There has been significant progress in the last couple of years, but they still have a long way to go.
|
Ivan:
[54:26]
| They still have a long way to go, which is why she was like, you know, go with your 20s. She's like, Hey, you know, 20s, you know, whatever.
But what while fusion may not be around, you know, around the corner, there's a lot of shit people could do.
God damn it. Right. I get so frustrated. People just shit. I'm just I don't know. It was a I think we mentioned there was a thing about how certain people.
Oh, you say, hey, do this because it will save or whatever not.
And we'll do it. But that just people that do that like me are not the.
|
Sam:
[55:11]
| Yeah, like even even I like you've mentioned before, you don't want to move to a bigger house, even if you, you know, I'm like, I would move to a bigger house. I would do that. Like, I'm sorry.
|
Ivan:
[55:20]
| You know what? One thing I do, for example, I actively reject bags at stores.
You know, you want to talk about what are most superfluous ways?
I'm like, I went to the pharmacy today.
I had a soda and the medicine. Oh, back. No. Save the fucking bag. Why?
The medicine's in a container. I got the soda here.
|
Sam:
[55:42]
| If I don't need a bag, if I've got few enough things that I can carry them.
Yeah, I don't get a bag either. But also, to be fair, like I feel awkward going to a store and only getting two things. So I'm like, I got to buy at least five things. Otherwise I shouldn't be even in here.
|
Ivan:
[55:59]
| So like, oh, yeah, well, we have reusable bags. We have like a ton of reusable bags that we use.
I carry around fucking reusable water bottles.
Everywhere, OK? You know, because I, because.
You know, we have like a whole stash of reusable water bottles.
It doesn't kill anybody to fucking refill goddamn water bottles.
|
Sam:
[56:25]
| No, I just. OK, OK, so let's move on.
So my turn for this segment and I am going to.
Even though the big news was last week, I am going to pick Trump stuff.
Uh, and there are some new things from this week that I want to talk through, but first I'm going to give you the opportunity Yvonne, since you, since you were out when the big, you know, 2020 election related indictment came out. What's your general impression?
|
Ivan:
[56:57]
| Well, wait, wait, wait, no, wait, election. Okay. No. Well, you mean January 6th?
|
Sam:
[57:03]
| Well, no, that's the whole thing. The, the, the, the indictment.
Well, yes, it's on the broader thing around.
|
Ivan:
[57:10]
| It's on the, on the right, the correct on the plot to overturn the election.
|
Sam:
[57:14]
| It's interference with the 2020 election stuff.
It's not limited to January 6th stuff. But anyway, I wanted to just get, give you a chance to give your reaction to that indictment, and then we can talk about the new stuff from this week. Go for it.
|
Ivan:
[57:30]
| I, what I will say is that, um, I saw it and.
And I mean, I it's a whole bunch of emotions at the same time, because first thing is that I think that, yes, he did come in a criminal act that needs to be prosecuted.
And I think it's very clear from all the information gathered that, man, I mean, this was a fucking planned. This was not an accident.
This was not like the useful idiots thing with the Russians, OK, in which they weren't colluding with the Russians. They were just useful idiots that are Russians.
This was a scripted, written out plot.
On overturning this damn election. Okay.
And, and they had, you know, a documented plan that they attempted to execute to overturn the, the result of the election.
Okay. Um, so, um, and they committed a series of illegal acts to do so.
So, um, so I mean, it has to be prosecuted, but no, I just worry about making sure that we fucking throw this asshole in jail.
He needs to fucking lose and he needs to go to jail. And, you know, I know that doesn't stop him from being elected.
My, my concern about is that, but, but I, but I, I do think that given where the electorate is, even though there are split like this, because of how you need the people at the margins that, you know, when you've got a candidate that is convicted and thrown in jail, it makes it very difficult to win.
|
Sam:
[59:33]
| Some of the stuff we're going to talk about is definitely timing.
Uh, cause where this all comes in next year, like, but let me just say this, even if he's convicted next year, I still don't believe jail will happen next year. There will be appeals.
There will be this, there will be that. Like, like even, I can't imagine getting to the end of everything to the point they actually put them in jail. Bye.
Before the election. Now, there might be a conviction.
And that's maybe, maybe not.
One of the things that did happen this week was the special prosecutor put in their suggestion on when the trial for this stuff should happen, and they said January 2nd. Right after New Year's, let's go.
But, of course, the Trump folks are going to to introduce their counter proposal, which will be, how about never?
And then the judge is going to pick something in between. Like they're not, it would be shocking if the judge said, yep, January 2nd, you know, now I'd be happy, but it would be surprising.
Like they are probably going to pick something a little bit later.
Although this judge is not like that Florida judge.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:54]
| Listen, I'm gonna listen. I don't know about about whether I'm not sure because it look at you know Um, I think one one trial that wasn't criminal But that we have president of the federal system moving quite quickly Recently was so you see that it's possible was what happened to Elon Musk with Twitter. Okay.
I mean, I really thought that That was gonna drag out for motions and things for years before they even got to a trial. And it didn't.
It took they I mean, they they are. I mean, the judge was like, you know what?
Either you solve this or we're going, we're starting now.
OK, and and I was like, wow.
And it's the only reason why he was wound up having to close a damn deal, because I think he definitely was like, I'm I'm not actually going to go to trial.
|
Sam:
[1:01:57]
| I'll just close it.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:58]
| Right, right, right, right.
And so we have, you know, I know civil and criminal are not the same. OK, yeah, I get that.
But, um, I mean, we've, we've had president for, I don't think he's going to be able to drag it out into 2025.
That's for sure.
|
Sam:
[1:02:21]
| Well, here, here's where I'm, I'm differentiating. I think it's very likely, like, I can't imagine him delaying all potentially after next week, all four of these trials in beyond the election.
At least one of them will be before the election.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:39]
| And I think we will, I look, no, you're looking at him being on the years of reality.
I think that the, the, the reality is that there will all four, all four trials next year. That's a reality.
|
Sam:
[1:02:55]
| I think he might succeed in delaying one of them, but I can't imagine.
Maybe, maybe, but we are going, We are going to get at least one and probably more next year. Maybe you're right. Maybe it'll be all four.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:06]
| But I think, I think that his optimistic scenarios and maybe he gets it down to three.
|
Sam:
[1:03:13]
| But here's, but again, here's the thing. I guarantee you if he loses every single one of those will be appealed.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:21]
| Yeah. If he loses, uh, well, yes. Now the question is of course, you know, whether, uh, because this is a criminal trial.
Yes, whether the judge decide, I mean.
Because he could be tried he could be sentenced he could appeal but the reality is it could still be thrown in jail the Listen in criminal trials.
It is not the norm to let you go pending appeal.
Correct correct In this type of you know in this type of trial Yeah, usually you don't you know, you don't get to just you know exhaust all your appeals and then start your sentence now Yeah, I, I, I think, well, it may depend on the judge, right?
|
Sam:
[1:04:12]
| Like, like I could see Canon being like, okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:16]
| Oh, no, no, no. Canon is like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you can, you can, you can, you know, but yeah, this, this, this judge in DC, maybe not right.
They'll just say, screw you. Oh, you know, sentencing is, you know, usually it's not, you know, look, you, You get a trial, you get a verdict.
Listen, if a trial starts in January, I mean, I don't think this trial is gonna go more than two or three months tops, okay?
|
Sam:
[1:04:46]
| The prosecution estimated six weeks.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:48]
| Okay, so look, yeah, two months, so a month and a half. So that means a verdict in February, Sam.
You get a verdict in February, sentencing is not gonna be in November.
|
Sam:
[1:05:01]
| No, but you know, first of all, It probably won't really be January or probably be delayed, although.
So I understand March. I understand. But even then I'm like, the judge is going to do house arrest or some bullshit. They're not going to actually send them to federal prison.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:20]
| Oh, are you fucking kidding me? Got to send them the fuck. Do you think the prosecutors are going to say, let's just, let's just put a little shackle on him and it'll be all okay.
It might be minimum security, but you know what?
|
Sam:
[1:05:37]
| I think still, you know, we should, we shall see.
I, I, I still stick to my, I said last week when another week you missed that I still sort of stick to my you need to repeat that You know, you're you're you're you're you're like still a little resentful that I was gone for three.
Yeah. Yes I'm gonna repeat that over and over again no, but the I Still feel like one way or another he will not spend a day in jail I hope I am wrong, but I feel like that will somehow be avoided through one I'm going to tell you something that, but wait, wait, let me say what I said last week.
The one I said, the one thing that could prove me wrong the quickest though, is if he repeatedly over and over again, as he's already testing the limits for, uh, defies judges orders and is just generally an asshole hole.
And the judge could be like, you're done contempt until you learn how to behave.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:39]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:06:40]
| You know, um, and I could see that now I've also heard people talking about how, like, look, that's exactly what he wants.
He's trying to bait the judge into taking excessive action and that'll rile up his people and blah, blah, blah.
And I don't know. I don't think the guy wants to go to jail, but I, I, I look, Oh, you gotta remember one thing that, uh.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:05]
| All the people that went violent for him, they're not coming out anymore.
|
Sam:
[1:07:11]
| Not even like this last thing, even fewer like protesters than the last ones, which had very little, there's, it's not, it's not just that they're not coming out to riot.
They're not coming out at all, at all, at all, you know, and, you know, with, yes, he's way ahead in all the polls for the Republican primary, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
But attendance at his events has also been really low. You know, this is not the same Trump from, you know, the last two cycles.
No. You know, people are tired of his shit.
Republicans are tired of his shit. I mean, I... Now, having said that, apparently they still like him better than any of the others.
But, you know, one of the polls that came out this week, and you alluded to it earlier.
I think you did anyway, but whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:06]
| Yeah. One of the slack.
|
Sam:
[1:08:07]
| Yep. Yep. On Slack for sure. But I thought you mentioned it just a few minutes ago, but whatever, whatever, whatever.
There was a poll that came out this week that talked about how would Republicans continue to support Donald Trump if he was convicted or if he was in jail?
|
Ivan:
[1:08:25]
| Well, I alluded to this. I alluded to this in the terms of how an election, you really need these people at the margins and that basically, this thing just makes it that it turns into impossible numbers.
|
Sam:
[1:08:38]
| The thing is for the general election, let's forget about the primaries.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:42]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. The general election.
|
Sam:
[1:08:43]
| But for the general election, like some of these polls are saying like 40% of Republicans would abandon him if convicted and something like 60 if he was actually in jail.
And on the one hand, you're like, only 60 and 40 would abandon him.
Oh, my God, that's pitiful.
But at the same time, in order for Joe Biden to have a landslide, you only need like five or 10 percent to abandon him.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:07]
| Exactly. You don't need you know, you don't need that. All you need is like you peel off 10 percent of them and it's done. Game over.
|
Sam:
[1:09:15]
| Right. Yeah. And it doesn't matter. Like you don't even have to get them to to vote for Joe Biden. You just have to get them to stay home.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:23]
| Right. Exactly. So and that's what happens with a lot of these people in this case, OK?
That I mean, that's a reality. They won't go to polls to vote for for for Biden.
But I mean, they're going to be so if they're that disgusted, they're like, fuck, I am, you know, I cannot vote in this election. That's it.
You got it. You're done. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:09:45]
| So we talked about timing. this Trump baiting the judge thing that I mentioned.
He has been, over the last week, sort of continuously pushing the limits in terms of saying things that are clearly.
Incendiary, uh, on the verge of attacking the prosecutors, the judge, everybody else involved.
But clearly, you know, walk it up to the line a little bit.
Um, and the, the thought is like, one of the things you've heard all of the, like his defense lawyer was all over TV last weekend And they so desperately want to make this a first amendment thing.
Like it seems like they were, they were prepared for like, the special prosecutor to come out with charges for inciting the riot and specifically basing it on that speech he gave the way he told people to go. He didn't. Nope.
He very carefully avoided the first amendment issues. Like a lot people wanted them to charge him with incitement, charge him with insurrection, charge him with all of these things, and then there potentially would be First Amendment defenses to some of those.
Like, I wasn't inciting, I was just engaging in political speech.
Jack Smith avoided all of that, did not go there, carved that out, specifically said, of course Donald Trump had the right to say whatever he want. He had the right to lie. He had the right to this.
But he doesn't have the right to use those lies in the furtherance of this overall illegal scheme.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:39]
| Exactly. That's the whole point.
|
Sam:
[1:11:41]
| And so Trump's lawyers desperately want a First Amendment thing.
So they would love it if Trump is able to bait the judge into slapping a gag order on him.
Because then they would be like, Oh my God, he's violating my free speech, blah, blah, blah. Um, which, you know, one of the people on TV, I forget which one, sorry.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:05]
| They all blend together for me, a bunch of idiots, all of them anyway, but, but mentioned this, it's like, nah, I'm not supposed to use the word idiot. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:12:15]
| Bad.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:17]
| You are supposed to You're supposed to remind me that.
|
Sam:
[1:12:21]
| Um, but the, the person said, look, you are on trial for a felony.
Yes. Your rights are constrained. Yes. Some of your rights go away.
You're damn lucky. You're not sitting in jail waiting.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:40]
| You cheap bastard.
|
Sam:
[1:12:41]
| You know, most people accused of felonies do not get to hang out at Mar-a-Lago while they wait for trial.
You know, now, lots of white collar criminals do, but like lots of felonies are like, no, no, sorry.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:00]
| Look, my father, my father for the record, okay, what, you know, wound up, um, yes, at home waiting for trial, right.
It was for felony, but federal court, but he was not allowed to go to my graduation from Carnegie Mellon, which is the reason why he wasn't there.
My mom was, but he couldn't travel.
|
Sam:
[1:13:22]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:24]
| And so that I found that out at the last minute that, you know, he was informed that, well, he can't travel. And I'm like, oh, it's fucking great.
|
Sam:
[1:13:32]
| Well, and that's the thing, like, I.
Yes, there were restrictions, even in that case, and he's a white-collar stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:39]
| Yeah, and he's a white-collar criminal, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:13:40]
| Right, but stupid guy who robs a TV from a store or something, chances are they're sitting in jail when they're in trial.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:51]
| Yeah, because they won't be able to make bail, and so yeah, they'll send him to jail.
|
Sam:
[1:13:56]
| Anyway, so they really desperately want to make it a First Amendment thing, so they're trying to bait into restrictions and then they can complain about the restrictions.
Donald Trump and his lawyers want to portray himself as the victim of all this.
But on the other hand, this is a game of chicken.
They're making a big deal out of this protective order, which is actually completely routine, and he already agreed to a protective order on the documents case in Florida.
And so, and apparently the, what the feds are asking for, for the protective order in DC is all fairly normal stuff.
It's basically just saying, yeah, you can look at the evidence against you when we give you the discovery stuff, but you can't go blab on TV about it.
You can't go talk about the evidence in public.
Um, and this is like fairly normal.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:53]
| And apparently that he he wants to be able to inspect the classified documents where, you know, I don't know, I guess he wants to take it back to the toilet, basically.
|
Sam:
[1:15:02]
| Yeah, well, that that's for the documents case. But yes, and that there and normally, like if that was D.C., that would be laughed out of court.
Right. But it's Judge Cannon. So who?
|
Ivan:
[1:15:12]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:15:14]
| But yeah, so for for.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:15]
| Well, but in that case, all those decisions can be appealed. And, You know, just canon, you know, her circuit of appeal basically doesn't have a high opinion of her because she's basically every time that anything that she did, what it would want to be appealed.
It wound up she wound up losing soundly.
|
Sam:
[1:15:34]
| But everything we've seen on the D.C. stuff is I used the quote last week from somebody, another one of those TV lawyers who said that this judge does not play.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:45]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:15:45]
| You know, she is moving fast.
One of the things was, she asked both parties for when they wanted to meet on the protective order question. And she said, it had to be by Friday.
And Trump's lawyers came and said, how about next week? And she's like.
No, see you Friday morning at 10 a.m. Sorry.
And so we'll see. But in this particular case, I think part of it is Trump intentionally doing this strategy of pushing the limits, and because he wants to bait the judge into doing some restrictions, he wants to do some battle there.
On the other hand, there's part of it that's just he can't fucking control himself.
And the lawyers, I'm sure would wish that he would just shut his fucking mouth.
But of course he can't because he's Donald Trump. And of course he's got his lawyers on TV talking. Oh yeah.
Everybody else is saying the lawyers are saying things that are admissions of guilt and just trying to justify it. And it's like, okay, that may play for public opinion, but it doesn't play in the courtroom.
Um, we'll see how all this all plays out. Um, was there anything else this week, particularly, um, the one other thing before we move on and take, take a break and move on.
Uh, there's been a lot of talk about should or should not there be cameras in the courtroom for this trial?
|
Ivan:
[1:17:20]
| Oh, fuck. I would love, I mean, there should be, I mean, if you ask me, should there be absolute fucking Lutely, yes, this should be live wall to wall. Fuck.
|
Sam:
[1:17:33]
| I agree. Now, the current rules prohibit, no cameras in federal courtrooms, period, end of story.
It cannot, like, and apparently Chief Justice Roberts is the one who would have to change that.
So I think that now the only thing is, and my default position is, well, of course he wouldn't do that.
And he's been resolutely against cameras in courtrooms for decades, especially for the Supreme Court, but also elsewhere.
So I really doubt he would change his mind. But the one interesting thing here is both Donald Trump's lawyer team and all sorts of Democrats are saying, yes, cameras, please. We want cameras.
Now, the one argument I've heard against is like, Donald Trump will make it into a zoo.
But yeah, okay, I, you know, this is, this is a.
This is a major, significant historical event.
Yes. This is one of those big moments that we should fucking be able to see.
In this day and time, there is no reason not to. We shouldn't just be limited to freaking transcripts that come out a few hours later that people have to read and, you know, no, this should be live.
I think the chances of it actually, or, or at the very least, like record it, put it out a couple hours later, if you must, you know, it doesn't, you know, I would prefer live but delay it.
Okay, fine. Or at least audio. I mean, it should be video, but at least audio, come on, let's, you know, give us something here, but I honestly, but I honestly think the chances are really low.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:31]
| I agree with you. I think that it's highly unlikely that we will get to see this, which is, which is a shame.
|
Sam:
[1:19:38]
| Yeah. I mean, you know, they're talking about a six week trial.
I'd practically have to take six fucking weeks off, you know, this is one of those things where I'd want to watch every fucking moment, you know, get the popcorn out, get the sodas.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:54]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:19:54]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:57]
| The little fix, the little cube fridge.
|
Sam:
[1:19:59]
| Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yvonne's talking. I got a little we are now for the first time this week recording the show in a way where we actually see video of each other while we're recording.
We're not releasing a video podcast that is not in the works right now.
I don't want the extra headache of editing video, but we can see each other while recording and he's talking.
I got a little Rubik's Cube style mini fridge up in my closet here.
Doesn't work anymore, but it's still a huge Rubik's cube looking thing on my shelf. So anyway, the cube, anyway, uh, let's take a break.
And when we get back from this break, uh, two more topics, hopefully quicker topics.
We'll see. back up to this.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:28]
| And we're back as you can see, high quality advertising that we carry here on Carbuncle's quarter.
|
Sam:
[1:21:35]
| That's right. And once again, I will, I will put out the offer.
Like if any of our listeners wants to be in our ad rotation and replace the bugs on your face spot or one of the others, uh, just get in contact at the end of the show.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:52]
| We give you all the way up. Thank right. What? Fair. What?
|
Sam:
[1:21:54]
| Yeah. Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:56]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:21:56]
| Anyway, we, we invite more and more interesting breaks in our rotation.
We invited insight, you know, cause I, you know, I, I, over the years I've made some of these, but like I make like one every two or three years and then change out the rotation to, but you know, that's not, yeah, we could use more.
I don't have time to do more than that. You know, I'm busy. I got stuff to do.
Like sleep. I don't know.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:20]
| God. Yeah, Jesus.
|
Sam:
[1:22:22]
| Anyway, Yvonne, it's your turn again.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:24]
| It's my turn again. Damn it. Son of a fucking bitch.
Well, um, let's talk about the Ohio ballot measure.
|
Sam:
[1:22:33]
| Ooh, nice.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:33]
| Okay. So, uh, you know, I, I got confused.
I will admit in the weeks leading up to it, because I kept getting confused whether this special election was for the actual amendment.
And I didn't realize that this wasn't for that. This was because the Republicans knew they were getting that that was going to be in the ballot.
What is it that November? OK, yeah. In November this year.
|
Sam:
[1:23:01]
| In November this year, there will be a an amendment on the ballot to change the Ohio Constitution to protect abortion rights.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:09]
| Right. And the Republicans, which I have to say.
But to an extreme that the Democrats.
Just don't do they have basically taken upon themselves that.
Super majority rule is what we want we want my nor we you know we want minority rule and we will do everything in our power.
To do minority rule to be as undemocratic as possible in every way possible everywhere.
|
Sam:
[1:23:49]
| Yeah, to prevent change and push. So in this particular case, the thing that was on the ballot this week was to change the threshold for amending the Ohio Constitution via a referendum from 50% to 60%.
So you have to have 60% agreement to change the Constitution.
And one of the motivations on this is that polling on the abortion thing had it just below 60%, at like 58, 59%.
And so that's, oh, let's put it at 60 then. Now honestly, even if they'd put it at 60, I think it would be a real battle in November.
But yeah, they're all in on let's make it 60% instead. Now to be fair, there are some legitimate arguments to changing a constitution should be kind of hard. Like changing the U.S.
Constitution is almost impossibly hard at this point.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:48]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:24:48]
| Um, maybe too, probably. And is that actually good?
It is too. I don't think it is. I mean, now at the same time, you don't want to change the Constitution like every five minutes, you know?
I agree. You know, you don't want to decide major political issues with just a straight up public vote and change it every year or something like that.
That, that way leads to chaos. But at same time, this was clearly, I'm not sure the right way to avoid that is let's make the threshold 60%, 70%, 80%.
That's not the right way to fix that. They already have obstacles in place to get these kinds of referendums on the ballot. You have to have a bunch of signatures.
You have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:30]
| Well, I think that the main thing was that the only motivation that they had to change this in Ohio was simply because they were, they feared they were going to lose on this amendment.
That's it. I mean, that's it. There's no other reason.
|
Sam:
[1:25:47]
| Just to point out this as well, just a few months earlier, the Republicans who are in charge in Ohio at all levels of government had, Change the rules to make it so you could not have this kind of vote in august and that they had to be in november Yeah, and then they passed an exception just for this one It's not they could get it in before november right and this is what you're talking about as well Yvonne in terms of like in all of these states.
It's like we're gonna do Absolutely everything we can to keep the levers of power to subvert the mccracken Yeah, to subvert democracy.
I mean, in a number of states now, when a Democratic governor has been elected, the Republican legislature has immediately responded by stripping powers from the governor. Right.
We've got massively aggressive gerrymanders happening in all kinds of states, for both congressional districts and state legislators.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:54]
| I've got DeSantis now went and removed with a second elected prosecutor in the state of Florida, basically just because he didn't like, you know.
Heritizations period. That's it.
|
Sam:
[1:27:09]
| In Texas, they are removing power from local school boards and from local city governments and to run things at the state level instead, because they don't want these blue cities to go doing liberal stuff in their red state.
You know, this is this is happening all over the place.
These these kinds of efforts where Republicans see sort of the power slowly slipping out of their hands and in some cases more rapidly slipping out of their hands.
And so they're doing absolutely everything they can figure out how to do to make that process more difficult.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:46]
| Yeah. And it's just, you know, and, and, uh, well, and they lost and, you know, they're on.
|
Sam:
[1:27:53]
| And, and this, this is the thing where like Like even though like technically this was a vote on should the threshold be 50 or 60%, everybody knew it was really about abortion.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:05]
| Right. Everybody.
|
Sam:
[1:28:07]
| And it won by a huge margin or like not changing it won by a huge margin.
And so this is yet another state so far since Roe was overturned in every state that has had something on the ballot about abortion, the anti-abortion people have lost.
Even in surprising states like Kansas and Ohio and places like this.
And this does not necessarily mean, oh my God, Democrats are going to win there.
Because one of the things we are seeing, which is actually very interesting, and we should figure out ways to take advantage of this, but if you separate it from the red versus blue tribal thing and instead make things about individual issues?
The blue position often could win. And we're definitely seeing that with abortion.
But if you have, you know, do you pick your Democratic politician or your Republican politician? There are a lot of people who would never even consider the Democrat.
But if you make the issue about abortion or about a variety or do you want to be mean to trans kids, it might go differently.
Now, it depends on the state. Depends on where you are.
But one of the things I've been saying for a while on here is, it is time for the Democrats to stop running from culture war issues and just fight the damn culture war.
Because it's winnable.
Almost all of these issues, whether you're talking about abortion, or LGBT rights, or various racial issues, the Democratic position is in the majority.
In many many places including purple states not saying everywhere there probably some red states that are going to be hangers on no matter what to the sort of retrograde position but this is winnable and for decades democrats have shied away from these issues and they're starting not to which is great.
Listen abortion.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:25]
| Yeah. The majority of americans in almost every state.
Believe in abortion rights.
|
Sam:
[1:30:33]
| No, not almost. There is not a single state in the country, even the reddest of states, that has a majority support for an outright prohibition of abortion.
There may be some differences in how many weeks they feel comfortable with, but there is no state in the country that has a majority support for the extremist views of this that have been passing laws in many States.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:02]
| And, and this is the reason why the Republicans have leaned so heavily on all these anti-democratic measures in order to be able to.
|
Sam:
[1:31:15]
| It's definitely abortion, but it's a lot of these other things too.
Like the same kind of percentages hold for like reasonable gun control stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:22]
| Correct. Yeah. I mean, the majority of Americans, almost in every state, I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure maybe not a hundred percent, but almost every state, you, you, you tell them, Hey, let's ban assault weapons because it's just a simple one, which worked.
And you know, almost every state would say, yep. Who the hell needs a fricking AR 15.
|
Sam:
[1:31:45]
| If you go by a straight pole, but because you've got a gerrymandered state legislative districts, because you've got, uh, you know, all kinds of obstacles have been put in the way.
That the hardcore Republican position on guns, abortion, LGBT, etc.
Can pass right now, even with only a minority support in those states.
And still, red states are redder, blue states are bluer. Nobody's denying that.
But the balance of what policies are actually coming out is highly distorted by these mechanisms to boost the minority opinion.
Wow. And yeah, like, so of course, Democrats are going to lean into this, you know, they'd be stupid not to.
They need to do it at all levels up and down the flagpole.
You know, at the presidential level, state legislatures, state legislators, everything, everything.
Um, and this is one of the reasons for over, over performance of the Democrats in 2022. And, uh, uh, I think it's going to be a big factor in 2024 as well.
I don't see how the Republicans avoid it.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:15]
| Well, I think, look, we say that it, it It has benefited Democrats, not just in terms of these ballot measures specifically.
I mean, look, we go and we go back to what happened in the midterms, okay?
I mean, look, these things are, these things are, are a, are a, um, a tide, okay?
They are raising all the other boats related to it because people are realizing finally after, I don't know, only been saying this for like the last 25 fucking years, that if you elect these fucking Republicans, what you get are fucking Samuel Alito's and, Y'know.
What the frickin' Clarence Thomas, assholes.
|
Sam:
[1:34:18]
| And I think one of the things that we are seeing is that because of the court also participating in this, like we've seen, people are starting to see the direct, including Republicans, are starting to see the actual results of these policies and not liking what they see.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:39]
| Not a goddamn thing, right.
|
Sam:
[1:34:41]
| You know, even, even people who are advocating for it, you know, the, the, the actual reality of it is not what they imagined in their head.
And they're like, wait a second. What that's, that's not quite what we wanted.
Um, so we'll, we'll see, like, you know, national polls are still damn close to 50, 50. You know, so you're not really 50, 50, look, the national poll at 40, 40 with a bunch of undecided people.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:07]
| I know, but that's, that's the thing. The thing is that to me, every time I see a poll that says, well, it's 45, 46.
And I'm like, listen, assholes, who that 11% listen, you can't not vote.
Who the fuck are you picking?
And because if you don't do the poll that way, I always think that you get garbage data because it's just not.
It's bullshit because those people are leaning somehow. Right. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:35:40]
| And different different polls go to different levels of how hard they push people for those kinds of things. Yeah.
But yeah, it's and this is.
It's hard to say. Like.
Which way will those folks fall? And and that's where we get back to what we were talking about earlier. Like, you know, the national environment, what happens to Donald Trump?
That will affect those people in the middle who are like, I don't know.
And like, once again, the fate of the Republic is decided by people who don't pay attention.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:17]
| I will say that I do think that at this point, look, the conditions are favorable for Biden to get reelected.
Whatever the polls say, because the economy is doing.
Better than everybody expected. Inflation is coming down.
|
Sam:
[1:36:34]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:34]
| And. I think that the issues.
That we talked about any of these issues that you talk about, the Republicans have, you know, opinions that, you know, perspectives that are not popular.
And you've got basically their leading candidate It's basically a fucking criminal on trial.
I look if the Democrats figure out a way how to fucking lose this one.
I mean, shit, we deserve whatever the fuck we get.
|
Sam:
[1:37:12]
| If anybody can figure that out, it's the Democrats.
Yeah, I know. You know, and again, we've we've do have like we were talking about all the gerrymandering and we've got the structure of Electoral College and we've got some things that are ahead with...
|
Ivan:
[1:37:27]
| And you've got the incumbent advantage. Let's not forget that, which is huge.
|
Sam:
[1:37:30]
| Yeah, I was listening to things pushing in the other direction, but you're absolutely right. You've got a good economy. You've got the incumbent advantage.
You've got the other candidate being a criminal. All the stuff you were talking about, you know? And, yeah, um...
So, okay, anything else on Ohio? We sort of transferred away from Ohio, but generalized.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:58]
| You know, what was the joke about Ohio? Because it's high in the middle and round in both ends. Ohio, something like that.
|
Sam:
[1:38:05]
| Yeah, something like that.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:06]
| Yeah, anyway.
|
Sam:
[1:38:08]
| Good job telling the joke.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:09]
| Well, of course, I can't remember. I can't remember what gets you there.
|
Sam:
[1:38:13]
| It's like, what's round on both ends and high in the middle?
And then you say, Oh, it's Ohio, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:38:18]
| That's right.
|
Sam:
[1:38:20]
| Not the way I said it was any funnier.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:22]
| Well, we're not very good at this.
|
Sam:
[1:38:26]
| Okay, my turn. And I'll stick with some political stuff.
But this week, Biden was visiting Utah.
And apparently, the FBI and Secret Service had been tracking this guy who had been making threats, uh, against, um, against Biden against all kinds of other politicians, several of the prosecutors who were going after Trump, uh, several politicians.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:01]
| I mean, I read some of the threats. These were not like, I hate you bastards. No, no, no.
I mean, this, this guy was, he was, I'm going to kill him.
|
Sam:
[1:39:14]
| I mean he was and he was listing he was listing places and times and things too wasn't right.
Yeah Yeah, like he was being very specific about what he was gonna do how he was gonna do it blah blah blah He was posting some of these in public places and You know, basically the authorities had been for a while now tracking this guy doing due diligence trying to figure out is he is he one of these guys who's just like blowing off steam and talking and and has nothing behind it, or is this potentially real?
And they determined this is potentially real.
And so apparently they were going in to actually arrest the guy and they were gonna do a bunch of charges.
It turned into a standoff at the guy's house and they, you know, they, with like drones looking in his window and everything like that.
But at one point, he pointed a gun at one of the FBI agents and boom, they had a whole SWAT team around it. So the second he pointed a weapon.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:20]
| Like, I mean, right, Jesus, I mean, what, what the hell else are you going to do? I mean, I, I mean, I mean, they, they went in, I understood to serve a warrant, to arrest them, whatever.
|
Sam:
[1:40:31]
| Well, they talked to him first. He said, come back with a warrant.
They did come back. They didn't come back with a warrant.
And they were going to arrest him at that point too. They had like, there were three or four charges that they were going to arrest him for.
Um, but yeah, they, they came to serve the warrant, uh, the arrest warrant at at that point, um, and he resisted and not only resisted, he like was pointing a weapon, he was blah, blah, blah done.
Now, my point is not just this guy though, because this is yet another, apparently if from what we've been hearing about him since then, uh, he's one of these folks who was deep down the conspiracy rabbit hole, uh, he was heavily MAGA.
He was all of this kind of stuff.
And it goes back to this notion of like stochastic terrorism, where somebody like a Donald Trump is just continuously riling people up.
He's not necessarily saying go assassinate Joe Biden, but he's spending all kinds of time talking about how Joe Biden is evil.
Jack Smith is deranged and is going after him and this one and funny.
Well, it's that, and this person, that, and, and so you're going to get some crazies out there who are like, well, I will take care of that for Mr.
Trump, you know, it is my patriotic duty to do what he can't and go out and do something.
And I just, this, this is another example that's burbled up this week.
Um, but I feel like we, we may not have, you know, we said like the crowds aren't showing up for Donald Trump anymore.
They're not like rushing the Capitol again so far, but, there are plenty of these one-off whack nut jobs out there.
And I feel like this is only going to get worse. And it's probably only a matter of time till one of these assholes succeeds in hurting somebody.
Like it may not be like, well, they have already, you know.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:50]
| Well, yeah, I still remember. Listen, and this was the case on the other side of the spectrum, OK? You know, you had the guy that one shot Scalise.
|
Sam:
[1:42:59]
| You know, for example, we, yeah, the, the baseball thing and we had the, the, the one in Arizona.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:07]
| You had the guy that, uh, you had the guy that went and invaded, uh, Nancy's house.
|
Sam:
[1:43:12]
| Yeah. No, I mean, and what I'm saying, like none of the people you just mentioned have died yet, but they've been severely injured.
I feel like it's only a matter of time till somebody's dead.
Um, and I, I hope I'm wrong, but like the more of this that you have going on, uh, the more the overall divisions in society deepened.
Uh, you could see it on both sides. I mean, like, uh, I listen, I will say it is majority on the Republican side, but the biggest problem seems to be on the right, right now.
Like even the FBI has said the we're really worried about right wing terrorism right now, not left wing, but it's not that the left wing terrorism doesn't exist.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:02]
| But yeah, right.
|
Sam:
[1:44:03]
| Exactly. Like and all it takes is somebody thinking, you know, oh.
I know how to solve that problem a lot faster than the courts.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:15]
| I'm going to go fucking kill Trump. That's it.
|
Sam:
[1:44:18]
| Yeah. Or you want to rebalance the Supreme Court? You can do it right quick, you know, and just to be absolutely clear, we are not advocating any of this. That would be horrible.
We are not. I'm saying that I think that this would be so counterproductive and make things so much worse.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:39]
| So this is the issue that the divisions and the kind of.
But what did I say? The rhetoric has brought things to this heated level. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:44:57]
| And, and I, I, I just feel like it's getting worse before it gets better.
I, you know, and some people are all like, oh, you know, you put Trump in jail.
We'll have full all out civil war. I don't think so.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:09]
| I don't think so either.
|
Sam:
[1:45:10]
| But will you see a bunch of idiots like this guy trying to do stuff? Probably.
So, uh, oh, well, that's all I got on that.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:25]
| That's all you got on that.
|
Sam:
[1:45:26]
| That's all I got on that.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:29]
| Anything else we got?
|
Sam:
[1:45:33]
| No, I think we should wrap it up. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:35]
| All right.
|
Sam:
[1:45:35]
| Okay. The, the usual stuff at the end of the show, go to curmudgeon's hyphen corner.com.
You will find out how to find us on Mastodon, how to find us on Facebook, how to email us all kinds of good stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:49]
| You will see all of our show archives going as my old friend, as McMahon used to say, no, it was, no, it was Johnny Carson. Wild, wild stuff.
|
Sam:
[1:45:57]
| Yes. You will see our archives going back to 2007 and for the last couple of months, there have been transcripts 2007.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:07]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:46:08]
| Very exciting transcripts. You should read our shows.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:11]
| Oh, shit.
|
Sam:
[1:46:17]
| It's, you know, if you'd like, you know, it's, it's very common these days.
I know my family does this. Lots of people do this when you're watching TV, when you're watching movies at home, you have the closed captions on.
So you could do that with our show. As you're listening to the show, bring up the transcript and read along.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:34]
| So we're doing a read along now. Yeah, this is, so we're going to change this, the current discord or podcast and read along.
Maybe we should do it a single log. Maybe we should say, I was just thinking.
Yeah, there's a singing podcast.
|
Sam:
[1:46:49]
| You know, you as listeners, you can be creative here.
Like, I believe I have, like on the podcast webpage, I believe I say explicitly, it's...
|
Ivan:
[1:47:02]
| Donald Trump should get arrested for all his crimes.
We should have a televised trial. I think it's going to be great for democracy.
How about you, Sam? What do you think?
|
Sam:
[1:47:18]
| That would be wonderful. Yes, very wonderful. Anyway, no, but what I was saying is like, on the website, on the curmudgeon's corner website, I've got a little tag.
It's released under a creative commons license. So you are free to like, with attribution, remix and everything.
So you could take the transcript for instance, plus maybe some of the audio and like do a puppet show.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:46]
| We're doing a singing puppet show!
|
Sam:
[1:47:49]
| Puppet show with Muppet versions of myself and Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:55]
| Look, if anybody out there decides to do this, I will give you $1,000, okay? That would be worth seeing. Yes. I will pay $1,000 for that. Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:48:10]
| For the Muppet version of Curmudgeon's Corner.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:13]
| The Muppet sing-along version of Curmudgeon's Corner, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:48:18]
| Excellent. Uh, anyway, also there is a link to our Patreon, uh, where, you know, you, you were, you were meeting Branson, right?
Like did he, did he give us a bunch of money on the Patreon?
|
Ivan:
[1:48:31]
| No, he did not. Listen, listen, listen, I, I, I did not meet Branson, but one of my friends did. He was at the beach at this party that was right, right beside where we were staying.
And he did take a picture of like, all of a sudden I see his Facebook, all this motherfucker is at the beach with Branson.
So, yeah. So what not not me personally, but one of our friends was actually on the beach with Branson. Yes. OK, OK.
|
Sam:
[1:48:58]
| Well, but, you know, he has not contributed to our.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:00]
| But he did. No, I didn't get him to go like just, you know, dump, you know, a hundred thousand dollars into the Patreon.
|
Sam:
[1:49:05]
| No, you have failed so badly.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:07]
| I know I'm terrible.
|
Sam:
[1:49:09]
| You know, missed three shows in a row and then do not successfully get billions to say, hey, you know, come on, man, you know, look.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:19]
| We can work something out.
|
Sam:
[1:49:20]
| Exactly.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:21]
| You know, Virgin, you started in media, you know, come on, we're media, you're media, come on.
|
Sam:
[1:49:29]
| Anyway, at our Patreon, you can donate to the cause at various amounts.
We'll mention you on the show, we'll ring a bell, we will send you a postcard, we will send you a mug, et cetera.
And as mentioned earlier, if you want to get one of the breaks on the show, just contact us, we can work that out too.
And, uh, at $2 a month or more, or if you just ask us nicely in any of the other ways we mentioned, we will invite you to the curmudgeon's corner Slack, where Yvonne and I, and a bunch of other listeners are interacting throughout the week, sharing links, talking about whatever, all this kind of stuff.
And, uh, we would love to have more of you there. So please, you know, join in, uh, now Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:09]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:50:10]
| Name one thing from our curmudgeon's corner Slack from the last week.
That was interesting, good and exciting, and that will thrill everybody that we have not talked about at all on the show.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:24]
| Well, because this is right up your alley. Okay. All right. I came across a story about a nude cruise is coming to Miami.
Better pack the extra sunscreen. If you plan to go, a new kind of cruise will be sailing out of Port Miami. Pack extra sunscreen because all of the passengers will be nude.
Okay, and it's about 2,000 passengers nude on the cruise.
I have to say that I don't know, I don't know how it's not the nudity that I feel uncomfortable with. I think that it could be very, you know, you could wind up burning some places that aren't not.
|
Sam:
[1:51:04]
| There was no protect against that.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:06]
| I mean, the thing, listen, the thing about sun protection is that application of that is not a science.
OK, you know, I wish, you know, I think that if you are nude, it's probably the best thing.
I think I have seen these places where you walk into a booth and basically just raise your sprays you and then you, you get a perfect coverage, which that is probably ideal.
But like what happened to my wife, you know, while we were in the, you know, down in Virgin Gorda, okay.
While we were, you know, drinking it up with Richard and stuff, we went and all of a sudden she, I got on a work call and she went out to the beach and she didn't want to interrupt me to help her apply sunscreen to her back.
And she thought that she applied it properly.
And that's always a fool's errand to believe that you're doing that with lotion. If you're using spray.
Now, is one reason why I like this to have a spray sunscreen is that you could you could apply that properly in the back.
You try to lotion. That's going to fail 90 plus percent of the time.
And lo and behold, my God, did she get a really bad burn on, you know, spots in the back where she just completely missed, you know, and it was just, and I'm like, why the hell did you ask for help?
Well, you were busy with the thing. I'm like, damn it. But I, you know, I would have, I was on, I was on a conference call. I could've...
You know, sunscreen on your back so you didn't burn. So yeah, I mean, you know, now you're exposing more stuff.
You don't want to miss an area. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:52:48]
| You do not want to miss an area. You want to be sure to carry your towel with you at all times.
That's just to sit on for hygienic reasons. And also you maybe you need it for other reasons occasionally.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:58]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:52:59]
| And you know, I don't know. It depends. It could be fun. It could be fun.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:04]
| Now they, they are saying that this is, this, this is a cruise for naturist, not kinky adventurers. We try to say there's a big difference.
Yes. Yes. This is not a swinger's cruise.
|
Sam:
[1:53:15]
| This is just the nature, which, which could be fun in a different way.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:19]
| Exactly. But you know, but this is not the way, but this one is just, you know, hey, we just, you know, we just like to do everything naked.
|
Sam:
[1:53:26]
| Yeah. Excellent.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:29]
| Yeah. So, so that's, that's the one thing that I, maybe, maybe I'll go next time. There you go. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:53:36]
| Okay. With that, uh, we are out of here. Hey, everybody, uh, have a great week. Uh, we are right now, everybody is expecting that the Georgia indictments will come next week.
Uh, so ding, ding. Uh, so we'll see what happens there.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:54]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:53:55]
| Uh, yeah. Like, uh, I presume we'll be talking about whatever does or does not happen related to that next week. Uh, in the meantime, everybody stay safe.
Uh, have a good week and, uh, we'll talk to you next time. Uh, goodbye.
Bye-bye! Okay, now just like the other one, Ivan, I'm going to hit stop and then it's all going to upload and stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:54:47]
| It says on my end that I'm 99% upload.
|
Sam:
[1:54:51]
| Yeah, it says that here too. Let me hit stop and then it'll do a little thingy just like the other one does. Okay.
| |
|
