Automated Transcript
Ivan:
[0:00]
| Hello okay I was sitting in the preview room I didn't hit the join button.
|
Sam:
[0:09]
| Okay well now you have.
|
Ivan:
[0:12]
| And you're.
|
Sam:
[0:13]
| Somewhere again aren't you.
|
Ivan:
[0:19]
| We came for a beach holiday unfortunately it's rained all day.
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Sam:
[0:25]
| Yeah I saw your Facebook post Shall we just jump in?
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Ivan:
[0:31]
| Mm-hmm.
|
Sam:
[0:32]
| Okay, here goes. goes.
Welcome to curmudgeon's corner for Saturday, March 23rd, 2024.
It's just after three UTC as As we're starting to record, I'm Sam Mentor.
Yvonne Bo is here again. Hello, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:05]
| Hello.
|
Sam:
[1:07]
| And just to get it right out there, the agenda is as usual. We're going to do a but first at the beginning.
I will have a movie. Yvonne will have something else out as I just hit my hand on something.
I'm like gesticulating wildly with my hands and like my left hand just smacked something.
Anyway, then after the but first, we will have more serious topics or more newsy topics.
I shouldn't even say serious. They might not be serious.
but they're related to current events. Whereas our, but first usually isn't.
|
Ivan:
[1:37]
| They might be serious, but I'm probably for sure. I'll say something not serious about them.
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Sam:
[1:42]
| Okay. Yes. Yes. So anyway, I, you know, as I said, I'm still catching up on movies and books and TV and stuff. So I'm going to have a movie.
Do you want to start Yvonne with something non-movie or should I jump out there with my movie?
|
Ivan:
[1:55]
| No, no, no, no.
i i i i i mentioned this to sam so i'm not at home you probably tell from the audio.
|
Sam:
[2:09]
| Because he still hasn't found his microphone yeah i.
|
Ivan:
[2:13]
| Haven't found the microphone good news is the internet here's a lot better in indiana okay um good and we we came not too far we drove to naples florida which is basically about two hours from my from my house to the The school spring break was out.
Let's go to the beach for a few days.
I know that I saw our friend Jay in Chicago post a picture from Chicago where he was done with the snow because they had a big snowstorm.
So my problem has been that it's 60-something degrees, okay, and rainy.
Look, yes, okay.
|
Sam:
[2:59]
| Whereas I'm like 60-something and raining? That's like perfect.
That's how you want it all the time.
|
Ivan:
[3:06]
| Yeah, I know. And the thing is that, and this is one of the unpredictable, listen, when you go for a trip somewhere, sometimes bad weather happens.
Okay? You can't, you know, especially if you're going to go out to the beach, you can't, like, you know, the weather is unpredictable. Look, this isn't as bad as a long time ago, I remember.
We went to Jamaica, okay, this one week.
And we, we, we, we, a hurricane came through, okay? Nice. A real hurricane.
Not, you know, we, we, a real hurricane.
|
Sam:
[3:48]
| Not one of those cheap-ass fake hurricanes.
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Ivan:
[3:50]
| Not, not, not, you know, you got the little bit of wind and whatever to grease by. No, we got hit. it you're.
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Sam:
[3:57]
| Talking like it's an it's not a category one even it's not a tropical storm it's like a cat three or four or something.
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Ivan:
[4:02]
| No it was cat it was no no it was cat one cat two but the eye came okay so we got hit that's what you got nailed by it.
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Sam:
[4:11]
| You didn't get the outskirts you got.
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Ivan:
[4:13]
| Sometimes yeah you get a cat three going by went far away you got nothing now this this the puppy had sustained winds of about 100 miles an hour and it barreled right through okay, And basically, we spent three or four days, you know, two days in a ballroom, okay?
Basically, just bunkered in for the storm. This is not that case, okay?
You know, so that's not the issue here. But, you know, it's a little bit like, you know, you came out for the beach.
Well, thankfully, we found that there's like a mini arcade on premise. We did that.
I don't know. It just did some stuff, but not, not, not what really what we, uh, we came for.
The other thing is that I had not intended to come to this hotel. Okay.
|
Sam:
[5:03]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[5:04]
| I, I had actually had planned to book a hotel. It was a little bit further South on Marco Island.
And I came to this hotel that I, I, I'm not going to name names. Okay.
But the one thing is it's, it's, it's okay.
It, it's stuffier than the other hotel. Okay.
|
Sam:
[5:25]
| Stuffier.
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Ivan:
[5:26]
| Yes. It's a little bit more frou-frou.
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Sam:
[5:28]
| Oh, okay. So you don't mean like the air is musty and stuff like that.
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Ivan:
[5:33]
| No.
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Sam:
[5:33]
| You just mean like, like more uptight a little bit.
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Ivan:
[5:37]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[5:37]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[5:39]
| And it's not where we intended to go. I was going to book another hotel.
When I went to book it, it got sold out.
And I was like, oh shit. I'm like, now what?
And the one thing that I think that really got us pissed off tonight is I've traveled and I've been in Hawaii, the Caribbean, everywhere. I don't know. Ever.
Okay. And now post pandemic, people are dressing so much more casual than ever.
|
Sam:
[6:09]
| Okay. Even in your Fufu Hotel?
|
Ivan:
[6:13]
| Even in every Fufu Hotel. I mean, but even before the pandemic.
I mean, if you went to a Caribbean resort, you know, as long as you weren't coming into your bathing suit, they were fine.
|
Sam:
[6:24]
| Okay.
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Ivan:
[6:25]
| Right.
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Sam:
[6:25]
| Yeah.
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Ivan:
[6:26]
| You know, you know, they don't want you on a tank top of the bathing suit for dinner, but you know, but you wear some nice shorts, a nice shirt, you know, Polish or it's fine or whatever.
They would not accept us to take a reservation because they would not accept jeans at the steakhouse.
|
Sam:
[6:43]
| Oh, okay.
|
Ivan:
[6:44]
| And I did not bring anything more than, you know, more dressed in jeans.
|
Sam:
[6:51]
| I'm very, very close to not even owning pants that aren't jeans.
I think I have like one or two.
I know you have lots of that stuff.
You dress up more than I do. But here on the West Coast, the number of occasions where I choose to wear something that's not jeans is maybe once or twice a year.
|
Ivan:
[7:16]
| Well, I mean, but the thing is.
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Sam:
[7:19]
| So I would come and I'd be completely out of luck.
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Ivan:
[7:24]
| But here's the other thing. The problem today with that is because the weather is bad, most of the casual places to eat here were outdoors. doors.
They're outdoor venues. And so all of a sudden, I'm like, okay, great. Well, I can't go to the casual place that eat, Go to the steakhouse, and the steakhouse says that they won't allow you to go in.
So, needless to say, I am not recommending it.
|
Sam:
[7:53]
| So what did you end up doing? Did you, like...
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Ivan:
[7:56]
| Well, there is room service, okay?
|
Sam:
[7:58]
| All right?
|
Ivan:
[7:59]
| And we did... Okay, so on the plus side, somehow, you know, this is so weird, because on the downside, we have had these issues, okay? And there's some other issues.
on the plus side, they gave us an upgrade to a room that they usually never, with this chain, they never I've rarely gotten upgrades. Okay?
Or their upgrade is, oh, we'll have a it's the same room, but it just has a better view.
Give me a fucking break, okay? You know, you're looking at nicer trees.
I'm like, okay, it's not really an upgrade. Okay, but whatever. All right?
|
Ivan:
[8:40]
| But this time, they gave us a room upgrade to a room that, I mean, I just booked a room that was like two beds, two queen beds, bathroom, that's it.
But they put us in a suite that is a two-bedroom suite, okay?
I mean, it's 1,300 square feet. It's massive, okay?
And so that's not usual. unusual so okay i'm the plus side that but everything else has been just i can't get into the steakhouse they fucked up some other stuff i'm just like you know and i was just like it's just basic stuff and and and i'm just like you know and i was just like yeah whatever i'm like you know honestly the rest of the stuff i'm gonna let slide the thing that pissed me off is you know we want to go get a damn dinner at the restaurant and we couldn't get into the fucking restaurant run i.
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Sam:
[9:33]
| Can see why everyone's cranky after that.
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Ivan:
[9:35]
| Yes okay so yeah so that's you know was.
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Sam:
[9:39]
| The room service at least decent.
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Ivan:
[9:41]
| This okay i will say that's the the plus side the spectacular from room service i did get a steak sent up and because we have this upgraded room there is a dining room table and stuff that we can sit down and eat and the steak was actually spectacular okay.
|
Sam:
[9:58]
| There you you go was the steak from the steakhouse that you would have eaten that.
|
Ivan:
[10:02]
| I'm sure that they probably sourced the same beef but it's not from the same steakhouse because they usually have like different like denarius okay i'm sure that it was it was of a quality you would have gotten at the steakhouse so so on that plus side but but we wanted to get out you know go to the, to the restaurant you know and so we we couldn't because apparently we're not Not frou-frou enough.
And so I was just like, Jesus Christ, fuck these people. I'm just like, I'm never coming back to this fucking place again.
|
Sam:
[10:32]
| Beautiful. Beautiful. You know, I think I have the right selection of like never traveling.
Just always stay home.
|
Ivan:
[10:42]
| It is nice to get, like, you know, get usually better attention, okay?
You know, I mean, well, there is one thing. Look, and this is something that is an issue.
This hotel had closed for a long time for renovations, and they opened a few months ago.
And this is something I spoke about.
A CEO of a hotel chain was talking about this, how, man, it's really hard when you lose all those people.
and to bring them back and to get everybody back at the same level of service that it's just very difficult okay and so i get that part in terms of the in terms of the people stuff i'm not even that's why i'm not even bring that up or you want to say that i i i that part i get okay all right you know you know all of a sudden getting the people back into a rhythm is difficult but but it's just i'm sorry the thing that really but no jeans the fucking restaurant fuck all of you okay all right you know i'm sorry you know that's just complete bullshit give it give give me a fucking steakhouse my fucking jeans that shoes oh.
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Sam:
[11:48]
| Good for you.
|
Ivan:
[11:49]
| Good i mean i had but i mean but i mean not sneakers i had like shoes ah yeah you had good shoes right okay it's just you know fucking idiots jesus anyway all.
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Sam:
[12:03]
| Right you you should have tried really you know a full suit except only socks.
|
Ivan:
[12:08]
| Yeah.
would have been something you know yeah no shoes there you go show up with a suit with yeah so i'm sure that there's probably some way it you know some stupid way that i could show up with like some pants but some some ridiculous the puffy shirt yeah you're right there's that episode yeah well.
|
Sam:
[12:27]
| Yeah yeah i remember puffy's shirt on seinfeld whatever right now.
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Ivan:
[12:30]
| Yeah yeah i was not i was never a.
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Sam:
[12:32]
| Regular seinfeld watcher but i know the reference and i've seen clips.
|
Ivan:
[12:36]
| No.
|
Sam:
[12:37]
| But what I was going to say, though, like the other solution to your jeans problem, I mean, they usually say no shirt, no shoes, no service.
They say nothing about pants. Just take the pants off.
|
Ivan:
[12:48]
| I mean, that would have been something. Yes, I would have been.
I mean, I'm sure that my wife probably would not have been happy with that attempt.
You know, so I don't think I would have improved the mood with that.
Needless to say, hopefully tomorrow it says.
|
Sam:
[13:04]
| You could have just been like, no, no jeans allowed. No jeans allowed.
Do I hear you right? Okay, I'm taking them off.
|
Ivan:
[13:13]
| I decided not to. Look, I called. I contacted them before we showed up because all of a sudden I looked.
I pulled up a list of the places and I see that.
I see that it says cocktail attire and I'm like, cocktail attire.
I'm like, what the fuck does that mean?
and then no then when they they they contacted me well it's really formal attire i'm like formal attire what the hell am i wearing a fucking tuxedo in this goddamn restaurant what the hell are we doing you know and then i just specifically ask hey look listen stop the fucking shit i got jeans you let me into the jeans no sir i'm like okay fine so i i just left it at that beautiful, i i just didn't look obviously whoever the employer was telling me this it's not their their fault.
They didn't put together this policy, so why am I going to rip apart the form related?
That makes no sense.
|
Sam:
[14:08]
| You can leave an angry review online.
|
Ivan:
[14:12]
| I'm not even going to do that either. I don't think it's fair at this point, but I will send a letter directly to them, but not, of some of the stuff because some of the stuff is just not cool, what happened.
I will say, look, in lieu of doing an online review, which doesn't seem fair, these are the things that I just not cool to point out.
I'm like, people come on vacation. We're not coming like, And I think it's just this whole thing about post-pandemic, far more casual.
Man, I mean, look, how people are dressed up in general is so down after the pandemic, okay?
That it's like, you know, give me that shit. No, no, it's just, anyway.
All right, I'll beat the horse to death. Okay, all right, Sam, what's your movie?
|
Sam:
[15:13]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[15:15]
| Is it Howard the Duck?
|
Sam:
[15:17]
| No, no, no. You got a long time to wait for Howard the Duck.
You will have forgotten about Howard the Duck by the time I get to it.
|
Ivan:
[15:24]
| Well, I may be dead, but at the same time, the other thing, well, it was funny.
I don't know if I mentioned the fact that, you know, so we're making fun of Howard the Duck last week, and it came up in Sam's rotation, so now he's watched. So congratulations.
|
Sam:
[15:40]
| I feel honored.
|
Ivan:
[15:43]
| You're so blessed so what what is what is on tap for this week.
|
Sam:
[15:48]
| What is really on tap for this week is once again from the 1998 american film institute 100 years 100 movies list now up to number 23 on that list it dropped to number 31 for in their 2007 re-release but But it was number 23 in 1998.
|
Ivan:
[16:12]
| So pretty high.
|
Sam:
[16:13]
| The Maltese Falcon from 1941.
|
Ivan:
[16:15]
| Oh, wow. You watched the Maltese Falcon. I'm pretty sure I've not watched the Maltese Falcon.
Yeah, we talked about last week Raging Bull. I've not watched Raging Bull.
Now I've got to watch these fucking movies.
|
Sam:
[16:28]
| Okay. Yes. Yes.
And I will say, well, like right up front, answer, I give this a thumbs up.
i did enjoy this movie i liked it it's it's humphrey bogart as sam spade the famous detective that's like there are a whole bunch of books as i once again knocked something over with my, you know as i'm talking like i'm gesticulating wildly because i just do you're.
|
Ivan:
[16:57]
| Doing i mean you're doing this a very trumpian way like.
|
Sam:
[17:00]
| Yeah i know and i get you an accordion i keep hitting hitting things and whatever.
But yeah, anyway, Sam Spade was in, I guess there's a series of books.
There's several movies, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, the Maltese Falcon is one of them. I mentioned it's a 1941 movie and, and it's sort of a, a mystery sort of thing.
I mean, basically 1941.
|
Ivan:
[17:29]
| So I don't know. It's like 1941.
|
Sam:
[17:32]
| So, So it's still pre-World War II. Basically...
He's a private eye. Someone comes. She's looking for her missing sister.
And she who supposedly came to the city with another person.
He agrees to go look for her.
But and he had a partner in the agency, but his partner gets killed.
And then and then hijinks ensue.
Like what I just said was the first five to 10 minutes of the movie.
So no, no spoilers for this. You know, what is it? 41 how many decades old is that 80 yeah about.
|
Ivan:
[18:11]
| 80 years old yes.
|
Sam:
[18:12]
| 83 years I believe it would be if I am doing my mathing correctly the mathing anyway hijinks ensue there's a whole bunch of people who are after the titular Maltese Falcon which is like a little statue that supposedly has it's like worth lots lots of money.
And there's like gold inside or some it's, it's, I guess it's supposed to be solid gold maybe, but I forget the details.
Look, whatever it's, it's, it's supposed to be highly, highly valuable.
And all of these people are after it. And there's a whole bunch of, you know, throughout the whole thing, everybody's clearly scheming in one way or another, but you don't quite know who's doing what and whose angle is what.
And it eventually, It eventually all works out.
And of course, the title character, this is not a real spoiler, the title character, of course, sort of comes out on top in terms of how everything works out.
But it was a good movie. It deserves its reputation.
I mean, it's, it's clearly that, you know, late thirties, early forties, kind of the style of movies from between world war two, between world war one and world war two.
And so that might not be for everybody, but.
|
Sam:
[19:37]
| It holds up. I mean, it captures your attention and you care about what's going on.
What I mean by the style of movies of that era, it's somewhat stylized, right?
You're not watching it feeling like, oh my, this is really realistic and I believe these people, I could walk in.
And these are real people. You never think they're really real people.
They're clearly characters and caricatures in a certain way, but that doesn't stop it from being interesting and good, you know?
|
Ivan:
[20:17]
| Okay, so I'm looking at, in terms of critical acclaim, and this is a thing about this on Wikipedia.
|
Sam:
[20:23]
| It was a hit right away.
|
Ivan:
[20:25]
| Following a preview in September 1941, Variety called it one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic storytelling in cinematic form.
Here is even more praise at realizing that Maltese Falcon holds an approval rating of 99% based on 106 reviews and an average rating of 9.2 out of 10.
|
Sam:
[20:49]
| Yeah, that's on Rotten Tomatoes.
|
Ivan:
[20:50]
| Yeah, on Rotten Tomatoes. And I mean, on Metacritic, the film has an average score of 97 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating universal acclaim.
I mean, it really, you know, it's interesting how.
We talk about sometimes certain movies and certain things not holding up, but definitely from your watching of it and when you read the reviews of when it came out and what the current opinion is and you haven't watched it now, you're like, damn it, it's good.
But OK, this is I mean, definitely it deserves the fact that it is one of the films that got put in the by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry as culturally and historically or aesthetically significant.
You know, so it's it was one of the 25 films selected for that.
So I guess based on you just watching it and say, damn, it's good. It makes sense.
|
Sam:
[21:45]
| Yeah, I mean, and the word they in part of what you read, you said, you know, melodramatic. And that, that's the right word.
That's, you know, that's sort of what I was getting at in terms of it being stylized. And you, they're not like, not like real characters.
They're clearly caricatures, but it's still, yeah, that, that doesn't stop it from being good.
In fact, I think if you like tried to make this sort of a modernistic, make everything everything completely realistic and make it so that you believe these were truly real people, it wouldn't be as good, you know?
And, you know, and like I said, you have to kind of have some sort of affinity for that style of movie.
If you hate that style, you're obviously not going to like this, but you know, it was fun, you know, it was, I, I enjoyed it.
It kept my attention, et cetera, et cetera.
you know and I think it deserves the good ratings you know, you know is it like I don't rewatch anything so it's not really meaningful for me to say I'm not going to watch this every year or something seeing it once you.
|
Ivan:
[23:01]
| Rewatched Back to the Future.
|
Sam:
[23:05]
| Yes, I have rewatched things, but usually at least a few years apart and 30 years later.
|
Ivan:
[23:10]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[23:11]
| Yeah. And, and, and, and oftentimes like, you know, one of, yeah, oftentimes like at least recently, like some of the movies that I've rewatched, I've been specifically rewatching it.
Cause I want to see it with my kid, you know, like I, I remember it from when I was younger And I'm like, you know, it would be fun to watch it with Alex, you know, as opposed to like, oh, I desperately just want to see this again, you know, which I usually don't do with a few exceptions, I guess.
But like, but yes, I'm not going to be watching this all the time, but I'm glad I watched it.
And it's, it's interesting because this is one of the things that you like, this is one of the movies that is sort of culturally well known.
like, Oh, the Maltese Falcon.
Everyone's heard of the Maltese Falcon, but I'd never won. This is, this was my first time watching it.
I had never watched the movie. I did not really know what it was about.
I did not know any of the details, uh, other than, Oh yeah, this is a famous movie and there's a Falcon in it, you know?
And the, and I did know that the Falcon was a statue, you you know but i it didn't know more than that and so it's good to fill in that gap in my cultural knowledge.
|
Ivan:
[24:30]
| So it wasn't an animal.
|
Sam:
[24:33]
| It wasn't an it wasn't an actual animal it.
|
Ivan:
[24:36]
| Wasn't a live falcon from malta.
|
Sam:
[24:38]
| No that.
|
Ivan:
[24:41]
| Would have been that would have been made it probably more interesting.
|
Sam:
[24:46]
| He would have been a real.
|
Ivan:
[24:47]
| Live falcon of malta.
|
Sam:
[24:49]
| Yes no no it was well and it was like it was supposedly see if i can get this right i'm gonna say it anyway like if i'm wrong i'm wrong because i'm scanning up and down the wikipedia page to say am i remembering right it was the maltese falcon because it was like the knights of malta brought it home from the crusades Crusades as like a treasure from the Crusades.
And it had been bopping around through various owners through the centuries and been hidden.
And, you know, it was worth lots of money, but also maybe it had some mystical things behind it. But like, that wasn't a big part of it.
It was mainly like a bunch of people were after the money, you know? Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[25:34]
| Well, you know, gee, kind of like, kind of like you're kind of like the money that you're hiding from us, right?
|
Sam:
[25:39]
| Oh, yes. Yes.
|
Ivan:
[25:41]
| Because you're Jeff Bezos. I mean, you're just like Jeff Bezos.
|
Sam:
[25:44]
| I am just like Jeff Bezos. Yes, exactly. Oh, I should probably check my lottery ticket, actually.
|
Ivan:
[25:52]
| That would be nice.
|
Sam:
[25:54]
| It's worth like a billion bucks, right?
|
Ivan:
[25:56]
| I mean, yeah. I mean, if we're recording a podcast and we get to announce people that you won a jackpot, or maybe we don't want to put it on the podcast. Who knows?
|
Sam:
[26:07]
| Let me scan my ticket. Here's my ticket. ticket here's my ticket let me get the op out let's.
|
Ivan:
[26:12]
| Find out if sam is a billionaire.
|
Sam:
[26:13]
| Yeah yeah because i'm i'm sure i am right i.
|
Ivan:
[26:17]
| Mean yeah i mean i mean according to people you should be.
|
Sam:
[26:21]
| This is how it works, right?
|
Ivan:
[26:25]
| We got suspenseful.
|
Sam:
[26:28]
| Checking ticket.
|
Ivan:
[26:29]
| We got the suspense.
|
Sam:
[26:31]
| Sorry, this is a non-winning ticket.
|
Ivan:
[26:33]
| It's a non-winning ticket.
|
Sam:
[26:35]
| It's a non-winning ticket.
|
Ivan:
[26:37]
| Maybe you'll get some stock in the NASPAC anytime soon.
|
Sam:
[26:42]
| You know, when you buy, when the thing says like $977 million, buy your ticket here, you should get the $977 million.
|
Ivan:
[26:55]
| Right away. I mean, that should be, you know, I mean, otherwise it's kind of like false advertising.
|
Sam:
[27:00]
| Exactly. God damn them, you know, screw them.
them but anyway anyway yeah these people it was not like indiana jones where they're like the the holy grail and it has magical powers or the or the ark of the covenant that has magical powers there's no no real magic here they were after it for no no it was it was basically a bunch of thieves, who were all trying trying to get this thing and we're all after each other and the private private detective got in the middle of the mass and whatever, you know, but it was, anyway, it was fun.
And, and, you know, you could guess some of the potential twists and turns that happened, but like others, like, I mean, I, I didn't, I didn't guess the exact way it was going to turn out.
Like I, I, I guess parts of it, but like, you know, and maybe I'm just dumb.
Maybe other people would have gotten it, but you know, anyway, it is fun.
|
Ivan:
[27:59]
| We'll go with dumb for now.
|
Sam:
[28:01]
| Yes. Yes. go with dumb dumb dumb is usually a good descriptor of things that's.
|
Ivan:
[28:08]
| Good you know i mean what the hell sometimes we all need to be dumb sometimes ah.
|
Sam:
[28:13]
| Okay with that let's take a break with that and then when we get back from breaking from breaking we will talk stuff and And then.
|
Ivan:
[28:24]
| You know, news breaks will fix it.
|
Sam:
[28:27]
| Exactly. The newsy stuff coming up next. What was the other phrase? Oh man.
There's a show Alex has been watching and the news people have like a little slogan that they use. See if I can.
|
Ivan:
[28:41]
| Oh boy.
|
Sam:
[28:42]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[28:42]
| Well, your memory, you know?
|
Sam:
[28:44]
| Yeah. Like I saw this stupid thing yesterday, but whatever. Okay. Here we go.
|
Break:
[28:55]
| Do you want to understand what is really going on with the presidential election cycle?
Then go to electiongraphs.com right away.
There you'll find charts and graphs covering the nomination processes in both parties and the general election race for electoral college votes.
For the delegate races, we track not just delegate totals, but also the ever-important analysis of how each candidate has to do with the remaining delegates in order to actually win.
For the electoral college, we track state-by-state poll averages to categorize which states are actually in play and which are not in order to show you the range of likely electoral results and how that changes over time.
Sure, you can get some of this stuff elsewhere, but not in exactly the same way, and not from me.
Sam, you're prime curmudgeon. I think my election trackers are better than the rest, so come look at mine, electiongraphs.com.
|
Sam:
[29:55]
| Okay, Mr. Bowe, it's your turn. What's the first newsy story of the, I was going to say the night, the evening, but people could be listening to this at whatever time of day. So, of the podcast.
|
Ivan:
[30:08]
| Right, it could be, yeah. Of the podcast. cast up.
Well, it is by the time people going to be listening to this.
|
Sam:
[30:19]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[30:20]
| Is Trump Tower going to be seized?
|
Sam:
[30:24]
| No.
|
Ivan:
[30:26]
| You don't think so? Or in the process?
|
Sam:
[30:28]
| Well, you know, look, I don't know how long it'll take people to listen to this thing. People could be listening to this thing in 20 years.
|
Ivan:
[30:34]
| But well, okay, for the first people, by the time it's published.
Okay, by the time it's By the time it's published.
|
Sam:
[30:43]
| I don't think so, because unless I completely screw up this weekend, it'll be published before Monday and Monday is Trump's death. Okay.
Now, but, but also beyond that, it looks like Letitia James, uh, assuming like, first of all, there's a chance Trump will pull something out of his ass to pay off his bond before we get to Monday evening or whatever.
So that's possible. But also, assuming he doesn't, and he doesn't declare bankruptcy or any of the other alternatives that he potentially has, Trump Tower isn't the first thing she would go after.
|
Ivan:
[31:24]
| No, it's the golf course property something.
|
Sam:
[31:28]
| Yeah, so here's the thing. Like, from what I understand, first of all, he's not the sole owner of Trump Tower.
|
Ivan:
[31:37]
| Ah!
|
Sam:
[31:38]
| You know, he, first of all, it's got condos in it. Like people, individuals own their condo bits.
But also like the only parts he apparently owns outright are like some of the, businesses that maintain the services for the tower and his own condo in there.
He leases the land under the tower.
And of course the, the condo, other condo owners own their condos.
So all of that makes it complex.
Like there's, yeah, there are ways to deal with it, but it makes it complex.
Letitia James, if she has to start taking stuff from Trump, she's going to start with the things that are liquid.
And then she's going to go to things that he owns outright or is outright plus mortgages or something relatively simple.
I heard some, somebody talking earlier today about this and saying like the last things they really want to hit are the things where like he's got a 15% stake or something because those get, those get to be complicated in terms of how you deal with them.
like if you have to you go after those but like you deal with the you start with the things that are easiest to get at with the least complications and then you work your way towards more complicated things as you need to that makes sense right yeah.
|
Ivan:
[33:05]
| Yeah i don't know that that makes sense that makes sense but i but i think i think that yeah i mentioned trump tower for the hell of it.
|
Sam:
[33:14]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[33:14]
| But but it really, you know, we will. I mean, there's already been movement.
Preliminary filings things in order to when the deadline hits the start, the process of to start as quickly as possible.
|
Sam:
[33:31]
| Right? Yes. Yeah. Well, and some of the things that have been explicitly talked about in that reporting over the last 24 hours are, as you mentioned, there's, there's like, I think a golf course in Long Island and some, and just like a big mansion that he has somewhere on Long Island.
That's not, that's not like, or maybe it's, it's Westchester.
Is Westchester Long Island? I don't even know enough geography.
|
Ivan:
[33:57]
| No, Westchester's not Long Island.
|
Sam:
[33:59]
| It's the part it's the up it's up from long island north yeah it's.
|
Ivan:
[34:06]
| Heading towards upstate new york yeah.
|
Sam:
[34:09]
| It's heading yeah okay anyway whatever so there are a couple properties like that that are already like being worked on and presumably they've got a whole bunch of bank accounts they can just go after too fuck the property well.
|
Ivan:
[34:23]
| I mean he said yeah it's 500 500 million in cash.
|
Sam:
[34:26]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[34:26]
| He keeps saying this, which of course, you know, he went out and after his lawyers declared that he does not have the money, He goes and contradicts himself on social media saying he does have the cash.
|
Sam:
[34:43]
| Well, and here's why that's particularly, particularly stupid.
Like the thing where they said they don't have money was a petition to one of the appeals courts to say, can you please just lower the amount?
Let us get away with giving you less or give us more time or whatever, because we don't have it.
That has not yet been ruled on.
|
Ivan:
[35:07]
| He's going out and trying to dictate the filing in public.
|
Sam:
[35:11]
| Yeah so so so the whichever judges are going to look at this who presumably are going to want to answer by monday are going to be like oh well well.
|
Ivan:
[35:22]
| Yeah i mean he's going out there and telling everybody he has the money so why the hell should we believe you're sorry.
|
Sam:
[35:27]
| Apparently he has the money after all right yeah right so So, sorry, we're going to say no because, you know, we would have considered it, maybe.
But, you know, your client's out here saying he does have the money.
So, that's a more recent statement. Maybe he raised the money in between these two things.
I don't know. But he says he's got the money, so let's not worry about it.
|
Ivan:
[35:51]
| I mean, and so it brings us to the other thing that I was joking about earlier in terms of his value, in terms of his his assets, which is his share in Truth Social and in the company that is the S-PAC vehicle that basically has is officially acquired Truth Social.
|
Sam:
[36:15]
| Is that how you say it? S-PAC? I was always thinking it was just SPAC.
|
Ivan:
[36:18]
| SPAC is yeah, a special purpose. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's four letter SPAC, special purpose acquisition company.
Yes. SPAC. Yeah. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[36:29]
| I know what it stands for. It's just, I, I've always thought it was SPAC, not SPAC.
|
Ivan:
[36:35]
| You know almost every time that i've heard it on bloomberg i've heard it called an aspect but but i could be wrong okay.
|
Sam:
[36:43]
| That makes it like i you know i'll be honest i have read it i don't think i've heard too many people say it out loud so.
|
Ivan:
[36:50]
| Now i okay i i usually hear people say it all the time on on on business tv and i've heard it pronounced repeatedly aspect so that's why okay Okay.
|
Sam:
[36:59]
| I think SPAC is more fun.
|
Ivan:
[37:03]
| You could be wrong. Okay. I mean, I could be wrong, but, you know, that's what I've heard it called many times.
So this became now official, apparently. It got approved.
And the hypothetical valuation of Trump's share is $3 billion.
Okay?
|
Sam:
[37:23]
| Mm-hmm. Now, this officially it's been approved and officially like the merger goes through like Monday or something. Right.
|
Ivan:
[37:31]
| Right. Right. Right. Right. But yeah, but but but but but but but here here's here's the here's the rub about this. OK.
So, OK, say Trump has all these shares in a brokerage account.
OK, so, for example, we've had people like, for example, ball.
|
Ivan:
[37:53]
| Elon Musk, when he went and he purchased Twitter, part of the money, he pulled it out on margin on one of his accounts that had stock in Tesla.
Because Tesla is a stock that is traded at one of the most liquid markets, like I believe in the NASDAQ.
OK, it's it's it's it's it's a company that the value of it, the requirements for margin loans, you can take out margin loans on it.
They may have raised requirements recently for it.
And usually stocks that are more volatile, they they raise the margin.
They raise the requirements of how much cash you have to keep in the account in order to cover any losses on on something like that. How much you can borrow against it, basically.
They say, hey, you can borrow 70%, but you need to keep 30% cash in there against, you know, there needs to be 30% equity on, okay?
|
Ivan:
[38:57]
| And they may have raised it on some stocks like that. They have that volatility.
No, you got to be 50, 60. But look, this is totally different.
This account, there is, you cannot borrow a dollar against any of these shares.
OK, because these shares are of a fucking penny stock, basically, that they are not really liquid on the margin on the market.
There is no there are no market makers because for a stock like Apple, you go to the market, you want to sell.
There are people that make a market on Apple and you can go on demand, basically sell all the shares of Apple that you want.
You know, they can they cannot basically turn you down. out.
However, for a stock like this, you go out and you offer, you know, $100 million as a shares.
|
Ivan:
[39:44]
| If there are no takers, okay, the market's frozen.
You can, they will not, that order will not execute, okay, until somebody shows up and buys those against you.
And if they don't, what happens is you start going through a process of bid, you know, bid, ask of the price, and the price will fucking plummet until basically you get somebody that wants to buy that many.
And so this stock is not marginal. He cannot borrow against it.
So if he went to anybody and said, hey, I have these shares of this thing, and I want to borrow against them, everybody will tell him, no, the valuation is bullshit.
Because the valuation is based on a very small amount of shares that are available to trade.
And what happens in these cases is that you get a whole bunch of people like, you know, can go in and bid up the price of that tiny amount of shares very quickly.
And so that increases the value of the 99% of shares that aren't floating. Okay.
But, but it's because there are so few of them out there.
It doesn't trade like, like, like an Apple or whatever that the trades millions and millions of shares a day.
|
Ivan:
[41:03]
| Okay, so everybody in the bonds and everybody that I'm sure he went, he said, well, I'm going to get this money.
I got this. This is happening, whatever, because this was known to have already been committed to happen. Like now we knew about this a while ago.
But I'm sure he went to everybody and said, bullshit.
No, that's the valuation of that.
We have no guarantee what the hell that is. So therefore, we cannot take that.
So that's no salvation at this point, okay? Because a few people have been putting out there, oh, this is...
|
Sam:
[41:32]
| Let me add, even if he could do that, the conditions of this merger say he can't do it for six months.
|
Ivan:
[41:40]
| That is correct. The conditions of the merger, there is a six-month lockup.
So he cannot borrow against them. He cannot post them as collateral.
He cannot sell them for six months. Yes.
|
Sam:
[41:52]
| Now, I have read that basically... basically that's.
|
Ivan:
[41:57]
| That's that's modifiable that i mean that can't be changed.
|
Sam:
[42:00]
| That's modifiable because like the the the people who would have to vote in order to modify it are all like in with trump right so like they could decide to release him from that but then you hit all the problems that you just said yeah.
|
Ivan:
[42:15]
| So so that's not that's not a solution that he knows it's not a solution it's it's just i mean.
|
Sam:
[42:21]
| It's not and look and look i i wanted to point out like you mentioned all the sort of logistics of you know low volume blah blah blah blah blah just completely aside from that it's a crap business there's no way in hell it's actually worth that much money well.
|
Ivan:
[42:41]
| That's the other reason why you're having you're going through this process the business is shit it's It's losing money.
It's just garbage, okay? And so, therefore, this company is already burning through money.
It's not doing very well. And so, even though it has this ridiculously high valuation, the underlying business is shit.
So, yeah, that's also another problem to this.
I mean, you know, we've talked about, well, could some Saudi billionaire show up and buy up the whole thing for $3.5 billion?
Yes. I guess that's possible. Sure. Sure.
I mean, that's that's a that is a but but the rubber that he can't sell for six months.
So, well, but but then that means release the lockup and do whatever and then give just here have a have three billion dollars.
|
Sam:
[43:27]
| Well, and the the other thing is, remember, every fucking thing Donald Trump is involved in right now also has a court monitor attached to it to make sure that he's doing whatever above board.
|
Ivan:
[43:40]
| Right. And so that that's also a problem.
|
Sam:
[43:43]
| Like he can't he can't do jack shit without this retired judge in New York examining it and saying, yeah, that's OK to do.
|
Ivan:
[43:53]
| Right. And so it's it's it's very complicated to do anything with any of those assets.
And and look, as as we have said before, if any of the assets that he claims are worth all these billions of dollars.
we're talking about the hard assets like you know resorts things or whatever if they were, If they had all the equity that he claimed, that anybody objectively look at, then he should have been able to secure the bond without a problem. Okay?
I mean, he should have been able to. He said he had $500 million in cash.
That means to pony up another $50 million.
Okay? And with the $50 million, he'll be able to post that as collateral.
But what this means is that 30 different bonding companies looked at anything that he produced and basically said, none of this is worth the bullshit money that you're saying, in part probably because they're all mortgaged to their ass and then because whatever the valuation that he gave them, because this is the whole point of the lawsuit, is that the violations were inflated.
|
Sam:
[45:04]
| Right. But according to Trump's statement to the to the court when he was claiming he couldn't do this, which, by the way, like we didn't say it explicitly, that was one of the events of this week is Trump explicitly filing in court saying, I can't do this. This is nearly impossible. possible.
But like one of the things he said was of the 30 companies he went to, most of them just out of hand said, we're not even going to consider real estate. Sorry.
We're not even, that's not on the table. We're not going to look at it.
And then the ones, even the ones who were willing to consider the real estate came to the conclusions that you said there, you know, look, here's the fundamental thing the particular case he is appealing is specifically about lying about how much his property.
|
Ivan:
[45:53]
| Is worth exactly and it's proving to complete to completely to come to bite him in the ass because everybody looked at this and is concluding what the court concluded that everything he said about the value of his properties is complete shit, because if any listen if he if he came up with a i gotta listen insurance companies are business okay if he came up and brought him this you know say i don't know that that that golf course in scotland yeah and man it's showing cash coming out the wazoo its revenues are great it's got got no mortgage.
I mean, you're seeing, man, annual cash flow, $200 million.
I mean, this thing is rock solid. Let me tell you something.
Insurance company would have said, this looks good.
Okay. I'll take the flyer. Okay. We'll guarantee the money.
Okay. Because they want to make money because they're going to charge $50 million for this.
Why the hell would they want to make the damn money? And oh, you've got a real asset to secure it. I'll look at it.
|
Sam:
[46:59]
| Here's one important thing that this is one important thing this is not a bond for original trial either it's an a bond it's a bond for an appeal it's.
|
Ivan:
[47:09]
| An appeal but it's a for an appeal.
|
Sam:
[47:11]
| And most appeals fail and anybody looking at this particular case is like yeah he's probably going to lose it so the other thing they have to think of is a yes they're gonna can.
|
Ivan:
[47:24]
| I can i grab Grab this. Can I grab this and sell it for what the fuck he's saying it's worth? Yes.
|
Sam:
[47:29]
| Yeah. Well, but they're going to charge the fee on top of it, which of course they want to make, but they're going to have exactly the same issues that New York would have if they start seizing this property, which is they know, okay, he's going to lose this case.
And then we're going to have to go after him to collect all the property.
And that's going to be a pain in the ass and take us a while.
And if some of these are in complicated situations with all kinds of mortgages and co-owners and blah, blah, blah, then that's going to be a pain in the ass.
And it's like, is our fee worth it?
to do all that shit to actually collect on this stuff knowing also that like okay at some point he may well declare bankruptcy that's clearly a potential thing that's in the cards and how does that complicate this well.
|
Ivan:
[48:20]
| The only way and that's what i said but the only way is if his inflated valuations were real then it wouldn't be a problem because if look if i'm gonna tell you hey sam i Listen, I need to borrow $500 million.
I'm going to post, as a guarantee, this thing that is worth $1 billion.
|
Sam:
[48:41]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[48:42]
| Okay? And you look at it, wow, it's really worth $1 billion. Okay?
You would probably say yes. The problem is that nobody is looking at this shit and saying, you know, they're all coming to the conclusion it's worth nowhere.
aware, you know, it's not worth the trouble because it's not worth the trouble of seizing because there is no way that we can probably, you know, we have a high probability of losing money and they're just saying, no, forget it. Even with the fee, we're walking away. The hell with it.
|
Sam:
[49:13]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[49:14]
| So, so that's, that's Trump's current situation in a nutshell. He's kind of like.
|
Sam:
[49:21]
| I mean, I know we've repeated this topic for the last few weeks, but it's getting exciting here, you know?
|
Ivan:
[49:27]
| Well, it's getting to the point of, you know.
|
Sam:
[49:32]
| It's getting to the deadline.
|
Ivan:
[49:34]
| Getting to the deadline, yep.
|
Sam:
[49:35]
| As we speak right now, he's got, like, what? Two and a half days?
Something like that? I don't know exactly what time Monday.
It's probably close of business Monday, right? That he has until? Yes.
|
Sam:
[49:52]
| Yeah, so. Yes. I don't know.
out like we still have donald trump as usual has waited to the very last minute to deal with things, i someone was on and i had like tv news and on in the background while i was doing other stuff earlier and someone i have no idea who it was or even what channel it was on but someone was saying like trump and his whole personality is like he can only really focus on something when it's eminent.
|
Sam:
[50:25]
| You know, so like he's probably not even thinking of like the criminal trial that's potentially next month. Right.
That's like too far in the future. Like I don't know what's going on there.
And he only really started focusing on like this.
$500 million thing that he had to deal with like a few days ago, you know, because up until then he was sure it wasn't really going to happen.
like he was going to appeal and they were going to be like, Oh yeah, Mr.
Trump, of course you don't really need to pay this here.
You're, you're, you're, you're counteroffer of a hundred. That's fine.
You know? And, and, you know, of course they told him no.
And, and, and he hadn't like prepared, like this goes back to, I mean, I don't know.
It's, it's, it's all kinds of things. Like if he was, if at the moment, I mean, they gave him 30 days that they technically speaking did not have to give him 30 days. That was a courtesy.
The purpose of that courtesy is get your shit together. Right.
You know, if you have to sell stuff, sell stuff.
|
Ivan:
[51:30]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[51:31]
| But of course he doesn't want to do that. And the reporting in the last couple of days is he doesn't want to do the bankruptcy either.
Cause like rationally, well, the best thing for him to do would have been to settle the this shit you know like a long time ago you know yes rather than take it to court and lose and like he could have settled this for a much much smaller uh dollar amount like yeah.
|
Ivan:
[51:55]
| But he he decided to you know i hear the thing is that trump has during his, life won so many of these just by wearing out other other guys that he thought that that would get him out of this yep okay you know that is really the the the thing and so he has not been used to going into litigation against people that have as much if not more resources on their legal side to withstand his usual tactic of stalling and negotiating until they wear down and they settle right and so all of a sudden you've got all these cases where that tactic didn't work and he's gotten to the other side and he is like a guy who doesn't know it's like you know it's like a dog that caught up you know caught the car finally and he's like you don't know what the hell to do with it.
|
Sam:
[52:54]
| Right and so like the rational thing would have been to settle a long time ago in the absence of settling in this situation is like hey giuliani and alex jones both were like yep declaring bankruptcy right now and if donald trump had done that i mean he put you know it doesn't protect him from having to pay this.
|
Ivan:
[53:14]
| Which is the light but it would it would potentially.
|
Sam:
[53:16]
| Stretch it out over years like as you did.
|
Ivan:
[53:19]
| Yeah like yeah as this happened to alex yeah but but here's the one thing but but but but that was recommended to him several times and he decided that, well, that would be very harmful to my current image and campaign. And so I can't do that.
|
Sam:
[53:33]
| Yeah. So he's, he's been telling his advisor, I can't declare bankruptcy.
So we're basically in a situation that either he pulls some cash out of his ass that he got from who knows where in the next 48 to 72 hours, or Letitia James actually gets to start seizing shit. you know.
|
Ivan:
[53:57]
| Oh, man. I mean, it will be. I will say this.
I mean, I'm look, I'm not discounting that he comes up with something somehow.
I don't know how. OK.
But man, I mean, look, it's like we said.
Anybody who has been and I mean, the only way to give him this money right now is basically if somebody went like gifted him the money.
|
Sam:
[54:22]
| Yes it literally i guess they they could do a loan or something couldn't they.
|
Ivan:
[54:28]
| But but alone okay and it's going to be repaid with what.
|
Sam:
[54:32]
| It's taxable no matter what well.
|
Ivan:
[54:34]
| Yeah because but it's it's a loan but but sam what's what's he going to repay it with.
|
Sam:
[54:39]
| Yeah i know it it could it could be like a loan and a very good term loan like zero interest over the next 30 30 years or some crap like that, you know?
|
Ivan:
[54:49]
| No, no, no, that's true. But basically, but basically you've decided that you're never getting this money anytime.
So, right. I mean, so, so either, I mean, it's, you know, you are going to put up this money right now to get virtually need to get nothing in return other than Trump's goodwill.
|
Sam:
[55:08]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[55:09]
| That's it. I mean, and is, is that worth really half a billion dollars?
i mean from a guy that basically has figured out how to fuck everybody he's done business with you think that the half a billion is gonna buy even that hell he'll think i'll tell you what he'll think and i just it just occurred to me i mean what am i so stupid 30 years ago when he was in talk with the banks and he owed him billions of dollars you know what his thinking was one of his big things was like hell i mean i got him over a barrel i mean they loaned me billions millions of dollars.
They need me more than I need them right now.
|
Sam:
[55:46]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[55:47]
| So...
Who's got who over a barrel? And so he's got no compunction of fucking over anybody. He's done business.
So this will be fun next week.
|
Sam:
[56:00]
| It'll be regardless of what happens. Even if Trump really does pull something out of his ass and put up the money on Monday, it'll still be interesting.
And we'll still be talking about where the fuck did he get that from?
|
Ivan:
[56:16]
| Right, right, right, right.
|
Sam:
[56:17]
| And we won't know because he doesn't have to disclose, but like there'll be lots of speculation on that.
Or we get to see the fun of Letitia James going through the process of taking shit.
And, you know, by the way.
|
Ivan:
[56:32]
| I'll tell you one thing bad news for for for for Donald. And it's like, well, how much was in stake? Three point five billion dollars.
|
Sam:
[56:39]
| Yeah, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[56:39]
| I saw that the stock is now down 14 percent.
|
Sam:
[56:44]
| Yes, yes. I saw that, too.
|
Ivan:
[56:46]
| I'm sure it'll go down lots.
|
Sam:
[56:48]
| More before his six months are up for sure.
|
Ivan:
[56:51]
| That's usually what happens in these cases that's the reality yeah um so yeah that that yeah that that that that that it's yeah that that's yeah it may yeah well again this shows you why nobody's really wanting to front money against this.
|
Sam:
[57:11]
| Yeah. Now what I do wonder for next week is, you know, how much of this we will, see how exactly how fast will it move?
Cause there are some legal steps that Letitia James has to do and it's not instant.
And you know, some of it may be done quietly. Some of it may not be done quietly.
Like you, like you may see like people walking up to Trump tower, like maybe she does does take Trump Tower after all, even though all the things I said at the beginning, like, if you want to send a statement, you fucking take Trump Tower. You know?
|
Ivan:
[57:47]
| Well, that's true. I'll tell you one thing that just occurred to me.
I saw somebody doing a post saying, well, what's to stop Elon and most of these guys from talking up the stock?
Well, I just thought of another diabolical thing.
Well, what's to stop a whole bunch of people, a bunch of them shorting this fucker into oblivion?
|
Sam:
[58:04]
| Mm-hmm.
|
Ivan:
[58:07]
| I don't know, get somebody like Michael Bloomberg or somebody.
Just go, oh, just stake out a short position.
Just short the fuck. Just whatever.
You know, and actually he doesn't even have to short that many shares because like I said, there's not that much float.
You go and like you fucking short like, you know, you put $50, $100 million and you short this thing, you're bloating the stock like in a heartbeat.
|
Sam:
[58:34]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[58:37]
| That's a bad idea. Shit.
|
Sam:
[58:40]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[58:42]
| You don't like me torpedoing? Coming up with a diabolic torpedo devaluation of like, you know.
|
Sam:
[58:49]
| Go right ahead, Yvonne. Set it up on Monday. You know.
|
Ivan:
[58:51]
| There you go.
|
Sam:
[58:52]
| Okay. Do your stuff. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[58:54]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[58:55]
| So, I didn't win the lottery ticket, so I can't help you, but, you know.
|
Ivan:
[59:00]
| I mean, that would have been a good investment. Put $100 million up, like, you know, at least to start, hey, let's torpedo Trump's, Okay.
|
Sam:
[59:10]
| Let's take a break before we do a topic for me, and then we'll be right about the length of the window. It'll be good enough.
|
Ivan:
[59:23]
| Exactly.
|
Sam:
[59:25]
| Here's a break.
|
Break:
[59:28]
| Do, do, do! This podcast is sponsored by AlexMZilla.com.
Alex MZilla is great. It's on YouTube.
And it has lots of fun videos.
Alex MZilla is awesome and great.
I love his videos. And they are obviously better than Curmudgeon's Corner.
Well, they're funnier. They're more interesting.
And frankly, he seems at least a little smarter than either of the hosts of Curmudgeon's Corner.
Honestly, it's ridiculous how endlessly talented and phenomenal Alex Emsula is.
That's how great his YouTube channel is. A-L-E-X-M-X-E-L-A dot com.
Yes. Do, do, do.
|
Sam:
[1:00:33]
| Okay, we are back. So before I announce my chosen topic, let me just rapid fire go through a whole bunch of things I didn't pick. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:44]
| Okay, tell me the things you didn't pick.
|
Sam:
[1:00:46]
| Okay, so we could be talking about Haiti.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:49]
| We could be talking about who?
|
Sam:
[1:00:51]
| We could be talking about Kate Middleton.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:53]
| Ah, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:00:54]
| We could be talking about Navarro going to jail.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:59]
| Well, we just did. I mean, that's all there is to say. Navarro, he's in jail. Bye, buddy.
|
Sam:
[1:01:05]
| We could be talking about Manafort potentially coming back to run the Republican convention.
We could be talking about the...
|
Ivan:
[1:01:17]
| Oh my god.
|
Sam:
[1:01:22]
| We could be talking about Judge Cannon in Florida keep pushing things out and making decisions that are very much in Trump's favor.
We could be talking about Trump's bloodbath comment.
We could be talking about Lev Parnas testifying in front of Congress and once again blowing away all the Hunter Biden bullshit.
We could be talking about the Apple antitrust thing.
we the next one is kind of thing i often would i would throw in the butt first if i didn't have a movie which is i've been having all kinds of spam things and i've been messing with spam filters oh.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:02]
| Oh i thought you meant the meat.
|
Sam:
[1:02:05]
| Well no not the meat like email spam on one case and the two second version of it is i i actually went and looked in my spam folder yesterday day and half my spam folder was actually mail i wanted no boy and meanwhile there was a lot of spam showing up in my inbox anyway and it was like almost random no god so i actually went to my mail provider and just fucking turned up did.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:35]
| You declare mail mail bankruptcy.
|
Sam:
[1:02:38]
| I no i did not declare mail mail bankruptcy but i turned off the spam filters entirely i'm like okay i can deal with some extra spam getting into my inbox but throwing things i want into my spam folder i can't no no.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:55]
| Bueno no bueno.
|
Sam:
[1:02:56]
| And also not only that i went through and located a bunch of mail i actually wanted in my spam folder and moved it to my inbox and the damn fucking thing moved it back oh god jesus and so I just turned it all off and I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with that and also political spam via text is really getting on my fucking nerves but that's enough of that, we also could talk about the Moscow attack, but not going to talk about that so what's left.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:27]
| Congress.
|
Sam:
[1:03:28]
| Fun in Congress. Exactly. So first of all, we got a couple things.
We have them trying to avert a shutdown again.
And earlier today, the House actually passed the funding bill that would fund the government through September.
Great. Now, it's what got Johnson in trouble, and we'll talk talk about that in a second, because it was most of the Democrats plus some of the Republicans.
And there were some Democrats on the other side too, and lots of Republicans against it, but they passed.
They had to get a two thirds majority to pass because they were suspending the rules, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but they got it. Okay.
And so it went through the house right now as we are recording.
|
Sam:
[1:04:15]
| And it is what it's just after midnight on the East coast. and they are still working in the Senate.
I saw during our last segment, majority leader Schumer says they have a deal on funding the government and they will have the vote still before they close up business for the night.
So it might be one of these 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. things, but they're going to have a vote and I guess they think it's going to pass.
So we're probably going to avoid a government shutdown.
Although who knows, it may still fall apart in the end.
And if so, you guys listening will know, and we don't, but the fun, exciting parts relate to because.
|
Sam:
[1:05:04]
| Speaker Johnson let this funding deal to not shut down the government, come to a vote.
quote, Marjorie Taylor Greene decided she is done with him.
This is ridiculous that he has allowed this to happen.
He broke all kinds of promises, not only bringing this up, but not giving him enough time to read the bill and all kinds of other stuff.
And so she has filed the motion to vacate the chair, which would potentially put us right back in this cycle of like, oh shit, we have to find a new speaker.
|
Sam:
[1:05:43]
| But she has filed it with the clerk or whatever, but she hasn't actually brought it to the floor yet. Apparently there are multiple stages.
So she's, it's sort of declaring her intent to do this, but not having actually done it yet.
Okay. And, and the house is going to go on a two week recess now.
And so basically she said she, she had a little press conference after she did this.
And she's like, Like, I don't intend to throw the house into the same kind of chaos it had last time, but we need a new speaker.
Consider this a warning shot, but we need a new speaker.
We're going to have to figure out a new speaker. And she says she's got enough support.
|
Sam:
[1:06:25]
| To do this. Now, of course, that's assuming like the Democrats once again vote to vacate the chair as well.
And then her plus a few Republicans would be enough to put it over the majority.
And then we'd be in the speaker search again. but she's not she didn't she could have brought it to the floor today and we could already be in this craziness but it looks like she's deaf it's it's going to be after the recess and And from the way she was talking, it's unclear exactly when or if even she will pull that trigger because it could be interpreted as a, okay, Johnson, I'm serious.
Don't do even one more thing. And specifically the one more thing would probably be Ukraine funding. If you put Ukraine funding on the, on the table, I will, I will shut you down right there.
Or like, it's just unclear. She's leaving her options open and she's probably also going to use the two weeks to try to get more support and maybe line up some people even for, okay, if we do this, who are we going to try to get to be speaker instead? Yeah.
Like, because you kind of have to answer that question.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:55]
| I mean, well, what do you mean? It's not like we had an answer before.
|
Sam:
[1:08:00]
| Well, no, no. But in the end, you have to answer the question.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:06]
| I agree, but...
|
Sam:
[1:08:08]
| Yes, I know. Of course. And she's an idiot, so...
|
Ivan:
[1:08:13]
| Wait, yeah. So what are you talking about?
|
Sam:
[1:08:16]
| I mean... Yes. Yes. So here are a couple of additional complications here, though.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:25]
| Oh, just a couple?
|
Sam:
[1:08:27]
| Oh, just a couple. One, we had an additional House Republican announce they are leaving the House.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:36]
| But let's be clear. He did so, once again, as a few have. There's been a couple.
|
Sam:
[1:08:43]
| Yes. At least. There have been a few recently.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:46]
| But there's been a couple that have done it in the most spiteful way possible.
|
Sam:
[1:08:51]
| Yes, and this is no exception.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:53]
| And this one is no exception. I mean, according to, well, I found this out from you, okay?
I'm going to quote Sam.
|
Sam:
[1:09:03]
| Yes, so let me give the thing. And I heard a reporter talking about this, and I, again, forget who they were. But, like, here's the deal.
Apparently, this guy's where? From Michigan? again the guy who's i don't know i don't know whatever it doesn't matter apparently apparently he's in a district where probably they would re-elect another republican i mean you never know for sure but probably they would re-elect another republican so like if you just had them leave them hold a special election you end up right back where you left off right but here's the thing, he did not resign effective immediately. He said, I resign effective two weeks from now.
And the interesting thing is apparently in his state, there is an April 2nd transition point.
If there is an opening in the House before April 2nd of an election year, then there is a special election.
It gets scheduled right away and there's a special election and somebody gets elected and takes up that spot.
However, after April 2nd, there is no special election.
The seat just stays vacant until you have the regular old elections in November and the new person takes office in January.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:26]
| Isn't that lovely?
|
Sam:
[1:10:28]
| And just coincidentally, I guess, at this exact moment in time, right now we are before April 2nd, But two weeks from now is after April 2nd.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:41]
| What a coincidence.
|
Sam:
[1:10:42]
| And so he, by saying he is resigning in two weeks, he is guaranteeing that the Republicans cannot replace him this session, this term.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:55]
| He basically said, oh, you know what? Fuck you.
Fuck you. This is not a GOP. And oh, I'm going to make it hurt.
|
Sam:
[1:11:07]
| And with him gone as well as the other empty seats we have right now the republicans are down to only being able to lose one vote on a party line vote that's it one vote because if if they lose one vote they end up with a tie and you can't pass things with a tie you have to have an actual majority.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:33]
| Well, one thing I wanted to mention as well about this is that this isn't the only guy that did this.
I think we mentioned earlier when the guy who resigned in Colorado, okay, that was taken, the Boebert, Boebert wanted to run in his district.
So the guy went and he announced his retirement and then he resigned and apparently by doing so, did so, where it basically made it that MTG couldn't, Run for the seat, basically.
|
Sam:
[1:12:08]
| No, no, no. Not quite. It's that he did resign.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:12]
| Well, run for the.
|
Sam:
[1:12:13]
| Run for the prime. No, no, in the special election. So what he set up is.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:19]
| Right, right, in the special election. That's right.
|
Sam:
[1:12:21]
| Right. So Boebert was planning to run in November for that guy's seat.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:25]
| Right, right, right.
|
Sam:
[1:12:26]
| But because he left early, there's going to be a special.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:30]
| A special election.
|
Sam:
[1:12:31]
| She can't run in the special election because she's already in Congress right now. unless she also resigns.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:38]
| She resigns. Right.
|
Sam:
[1:12:39]
| And then she can't go.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:40]
| And the one thing is, and the main thing, the main point about...
|
Sam:
[1:12:44]
| And then whoever wins the special election has a leg up for no reason.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:48]
| Exactly. And that's the point. And that's the reason why it was like basically sticking it to her because that guy, you know, she can't run the special election and that guy, whoever wins, is going to have a leg up on him in that district where he was going.
It wasn't a slam dunk for her. It was a slam dunk for the Republican, but not for her.
|
Sam:
[1:13:05]
| Yeah. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:06]
| So, yeah. So, so it just seems like all of these resignations lately have been like at this theme.
Hey, let me do it in a way that I am like needling one of these assholes.
Hell, what's his name? McCarthy's resignation.
|
Sam:
[1:13:20]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:21]
| You know, the speaker's resignation. That one also was a kick in the balls too. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:13:26]
| And so where we end up here is like two weeks from now, we'll be in that one vote margin situation.
And because the Republicans will probably gain a couple back because there are a couple special elections already scheduled that they're likely to win.
So that margin will probably grow again after a little while.
But we will be in that one vote scenario two weeks from now, which is when MTG could pull the trigger on this thing.
And if you remember, even with a four vote margin, they had a shit load of a hard time.
Coming up with a speaker, both in the McCarthy situation and in the Johnson situation, it was like nearly impossible for them to agree.
They finally, like in the McCarthy situation, they finally sort of wore down the opposition and like Gates decided not to vote and stuff like that.
In the Johnson situation, they were just fucking tired.
They knew they looked like idiots and eventually were like, okay, fine, whatever. Let's do this.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:36]
| Well, one thing you're saying that they could listen, you some of these losses that we've got, we haven't expected them right now.
The reality is that you say, well, they're going to gain some of the special elections. But the thing is, their trend has been all going in the wrong direction.
Okay, yes. And they keep getting people like that are resigning, you know, that are making it. Oh, shit, this guy resigned.
Oh, shit, this guy resigned. Oh, shit, this guy resigned. mind and they're like you know they're one guy being in the hospital.
|
Sam:
[1:15:10]
| Right made the difference on that vote a while back yeah yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:15]
| Literally i mean at this point it's crazy that it's down to that.
|
Sam:
[1:15:21]
| Right now and and most of the resignations have been in solid republican states that are They're very unlikely to flip to the Democrats, but, and we're getting to the point, like with this one, that they're not going to have a special election.
They'll just wait for November anyway, you know, in which case, you know, they can't afford to lose any more.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:42]
| The problem is that the impact is that it doesn't matter that they are.
The impact right now in many of these cases has been the same.
It's been one where, you know, he had to maneuver the way he just had to maneuver to get this bill through because he just doesn't have the votes at all.
|
Sam:
[1:16:01]
| Well, and this is one of the reasons MTG is upset, right? Right.
Because the last few things that Johnson has done, I mean, the only things that he's been able to do are these must pass bills.
And the only way to do them is with the Democrats.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:20]
| That's right.
|
Sam:
[1:16:20]
| You know, this last one didn't even have a majority of the Republicans.
It's not even like there were just a few Republican holdouts or whatever.
This was this was most of the Democrats and some Republicans, which I mean, if you remember, we've talked about this going back like more than a decade now.
Like whenever the Republicans have the House, this is how things actually end up getting done when we come to like these these spending standoffs.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:49]
| Look, there's a reason why John Boehner is like, you know, enjoying a cigar and having wine at home because he said, OK, I'm done with the terrorist groups.
|
Sam:
[1:17:00]
| Yeah. So now here's the other complication and why people are talking like Boebert's thing may backfire.
Because there are a couple there are a couple of possible ways.
Oh, sorry. Green. Yeah. You got me thinking about the other one. I don't know.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:16]
| I'm sorry.
|
Sam:
[1:17:17]
| Anyway, you know, I know they hate each. other yeah but like they occupy a similar mental space in my head wasn't.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:24]
| It amazing how these people because they're they are so because they are so such evil double crossers that they even wind up hating each other.
|
Sam:
[1:17:33]
| Yes anyway here here's the thing first of all there's now a lot of talk, with the democrats of like you know we'll save him if if she brings this up we can save him now that well because.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:53]
| Basically you're sticking it to her too.
|
Sam:
[1:17:54]
| You're sticking it to her but also like johnson's been giving the democrats i mean it's not like we're public you know it's not like he's He's doing the same thing a Democratic speaker would do, but he's making sure the must-have things are passing.
|
Sam:
[1:18:13]
| And so the Democrats are, you know, I've heard going back a month that the Democrats were seriously considering that, hey, as long as he's making sure the must have things happen.
We'll save his ass, you know, because if all the if all the Democrats, plus a handful of Republicans vote to keep him because the motion to vacate the chair triggers a yes, no vote. Do we keep do we keep the speaker?
|
Sam:
[1:18:43]
| And if all the Democrats vote to keep him, then he stays.
But, and so I've heard a few things.
One, I heard the story going back at least a month that said, as long as he keeps allowing these things to come to a vote and the must have things are happening, we'll keep them.
It's better than throwing the, because we need to have those things happen.
It's better than, better than throwing the house into chaos again.
More recently, I've heard about making an explicit trade for Ukraine funding and saying, we will support you on this as long as you make the Ukraine aid happen.
Like, bring it to a vote, because this is another one of those things that there's a group of Republicans at this point who are diehard against it, and they're mostly the ones that are closely aligned with Donald Trump.
At this point, most of the Republicans are closely aligned with Donald Trump, but there are some that are even more so than others.
But there's this group of Republicans that is in the minority, but who feel very strongly, no more aid to Ukraine. But.
|
Sam:
[1:19:58]
| If you just put this on a vote for the whole House, it would clearly pass.
Oh, yeah? It would pass by a significant margin with almost all of the Democrats and probably more than half of the Republicans.
And so, you know, so it's just bring this to a table.
But then in the direct aftermath of Marjorie Taylor Greene putting this on the table, I think it was CNN had an interview with some Democratic House member who they asked, you know, would you support Johnson if this came? And he's just like, yes. Yes.
He didn't even mention any conditions. He's like, look, they're going after him because he did the right thing.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:46]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:20:47]
| And so this is not a good reason to kick out a speaker my party or not i'm i i would vote to keep them and given the close nature of the thing you only need a few democrats saying that now i personally feel like if the democrats are going to bail out speaker johnson they should get something in return yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:10]
| I agreed 100 they gotta.
|
Sam:
[1:21:12]
| They should not give it they should not do it for free you.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:15]
| Gotta get you gotta get a couple of things you know not not be too greedy but like the ukraine funding maybe a couple of other things that's it you know to say listen you pass these two or three things through the end of the year and you know we'll save your ass okay.
|
Sam:
[1:21:30]
| And and look this also by the way yeah because people are like well why give johnson the win why keep him in power wouldn't it if the republicans completely fall apart and can't pick pick a speaker for the rest of the fucking year or something.
Doesn't that make, isn't that good for us? Like in the election?
|
Ivan:
[1:21:50]
| No, it's going to shut down the government. It's good.
It causes quite a lot of problems. No, it's just, it's, I mean, it's just, I mean, it's watching the country burn just because you think it's advantageous to us.
|
Sam:
[1:22:05]
| Yes, exactly. I was going to say, it's one of those things where even if you're right that it would help you politically, it's still the wrong thing for the country.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:13]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:22:14]
| You know? Because it actually is a negative effect to have that dysfunction.
So if you can make it function, great. But also, just think of the scenario.
mario johnson gets to keep being speaker only because the democrats say so no.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:34]
| I gotta you gotta love it.
|
Sam:
[1:22:35]
| That that's not gonna be like i mean he's already probably the weakest fucking speaker that's ever existed given his precarious situation but that would make him even weaker.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:47]
| And the only one whose porn is monitored by his son.
|
Sam:
[1:22:52]
| Yes exactly but no but the the deal would be like for the rest of his speakerhood you know or at least till the next election he's beholden to the fucking democrats like at any moment the the the republicans could try to kick him out again and the only people The people saving him are the Democrats. Yep.
And it's just like, you gotta be kidding me. Like that would be so hilarious to watch play out.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:26]
| I'll tell you, I'll throw out a listen. Let's pass the border deal.
Let's pass the, the, the, the Ukraine funding and we're good. You can stay.
|
Sam:
[1:23:40]
| Man. man we'll see how that i i i'm a little bit frustrated that they they that mtg didn't pull the trigger right away and is instead waiting at least two weeks to do it because it would be amusing to watch it play out like right now like but but okay then we gotta wait but now the other thing and i just want you know you've been bringing up on our curmudgeons corner slack yes so i i feel like we have to talk about it a little bit even though it seems still unlikely Likely.
Is that with all of this going on and the Republicans down to a one vote margin, all you fucking need is like two defectors.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:24]
| Yeah, we're done.
|
Sam:
[1:24:26]
| And you could have a Democratic speaker. You can have Hakeem Jeffords in place. One person.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:31]
| Jeffords?
|
Sam:
[1:24:32]
| Defects. Jeffries. Jeffries. Jeffries. Jeffries. Um, one, one person defects or, or one person gets sick, you know, like you said, one person in the hospital made a difference before you could have one person, one or two people like get sick and they have to stay home. And suddenly you have a democratic speaker.
Now, if, if they knew, if they knew it would be temporary, like, you know, oh, okay.
This is only going to last two weeks or something. And I don't know how much the Democrats could get done in two weeks if they tried to do that shit.
Maybe it wouldn't be worth it, but it would be hilarious.
You know, I don't think there's going to be a defection like that.
I mean, I guess you never know if somebody gets sick or gets hit by a truck or something, you know, who knows what would happen.
But like, it would be absolutely hilarious if simply through attrition and Republican representatives resigning and lowering the margin each time that suddenly the Democrats get to take over for a little bit, you know.
|
Sam:
[1:25:45]
| I'm not predicting it. I don't think it's probably going to happen, but we're right on that edge where any little thing that the Republicans, I mean, the Republicans are such idiots in how they handle this.
And they're so at war with each other right now that, like, all it takes is a miscalculation and the Democrats could just jump on that.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:07]
| Yep. Absolutely.
|
Sam:
[1:26:11]
| And and you know i i i've seen while we've been sitting here i saw someone on mastodon speculate you know all you need is you have that one defector in the house and then you kill the filibuster in the senate and you just ram through a whole bunch of shit well.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:30]
| Kill the filibuster i thought you were going to say we're going to kill another kill one of the.
|
Sam:
[1:26:34]
| One of the no i am not Not suggesting changing the balance of power through assassination. No, no, no.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:41]
| Secret Service, we are not suggesting any of that. We are just joking. Thank you.
|
Sam:
[1:26:46]
| Thank you.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:47]
| Thank you.
|
Sam:
[1:26:47]
| No, no. That would be bad.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:49]
| Well, what if the presidential immunity thing comes in?
I mean, if Trump is right, then, you know, I mean, Biden could just, you know, hire his hit squad.
that could go and like commit all the all his crimes yes.
|
Sam:
[1:27:05]
| Yes yes yes yes yes of course.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:10]
| Finally we'll get the imperial president so many are wishing for.
|
Sam:
[1:27:15]
| So many so well unfortunately a lot of people apparently are but.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:20]
| Yes they are we you know i i still am remembering that there was when i worked out at this gym years back where i went usually at the end of after work where i was working at an office nine to five would go from the office go to the gym and almost every time as i was like on this machine they had a number of tvs or they were showing like a cnbc whatever and there was this one one guy who bought on i think it was one One of those local cable ads.
Okay. Company called Stansberry Research. Okay.
Now, sounds sexy. Okay. Stansberry Research.
Well, this guy ran an ad nonstop every day saying how Obama was plotting a takeover of the presidency into that.
And he was going to turn it into an imperial presidency that he's going to stay in power forever.
|
Sam:
[1:28:17]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:18]
| And not leave office. Okay. and that was his that was his shtick you know how he was selling i don't know some kind of like survivalist portfolio investment strategy i guess you have to buy gold or some shit like that or whatever right of course or did it whatnot and you know but but but yeah but but but you know the the funny thing i bring that up about the imperial presidency it's just this is what these These guys were talking about...
I'm like, but the reality is it comes so much down to projection.
Because they wanted an imperial president that was for their MAGA horseshit, whatever.
But they kept claiming Obama was trying to be the imperial president.
|
Sam:
[1:29:02]
| Well, yes, it's projection in the sense of...
this is how they think. And they can't imagine that somebody else would think about it some other way.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:12]
| Correct. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:29:14]
| You know, it's like, what do you mean?
If you're in charge, you're not going to do everything you can to direct money at yourself and, and take advantage of every power possible and blah, blah, blah.
Like the, the idea that some people are actually there because they are trying to do good for the public as a whole just doesn't even occur to them because like why would anybody be stupid enough to do that.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:42]
| Well here it is i just looked up if they're still around yeah they still have a website the main thing on the front page and yeah i was right about gold here let me see a billionaire's case for gold 1.0 what's the other i never thought a gold bug was a fair term like I told you it's all about gold, it's gold somehow the gold is going to solve everything.
|
Sam:
[1:30:08]
| Yes of course.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:11]
| Okay so anyway.
|
Sam:
[1:30:13]
| Okay so we'll see if I'm assuming the Senate is going to pull this through and we won't have a government shutdown at this point at least not till September because of course you can't kick this down the road too far, we gotta have another crisis right before the election you know so i.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:33]
| It's even well yeah yeah i mean it's very important to have a crisis trip before the election because that's the way it works we got you want you want the october surprise.
|
Sam:
[1:30:42]
| Yeah exactly so we'll get to september and then they'll like do like push it off a week or two at a time and then suddenly we'll we're gonna have a government shutdown debate right in the middle of october and yeah yeah Of course, but I, they'll probably pull it out.
Maybe there'll be a surprise like officially, just, just to be clear, officially funding for parts of the government actually expired 36 minutes ago as we were recording, but the government agency involved in planning for a shutdown.
has paused because it looks like the senate's going to come through yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:25]
| That is correct.
|
Sam:
[1:31:26]
| So that's what i just said so i guess officially we actually are in a partial government shutdown right now but it's gonna if the senate comes through as expected it's going to be one of those deals where yeah officially we ran out of funding for a few hours in the middle of the night but no one cared because by the time people came back to work monday morning or whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:47]
| Everything think is fine or.
|
Sam:
[1:31:49]
| Even saturday morning by the time they come in you know they're not actually going to close anything because yeah so but we're gonna in the next couple weeks it would be fun like so we got we got all the donald trump liquidation stuff we also have the hearing on monday about the new york criminal trial on how much it needs to be delayed it was already delayed at least 30 days to the middle of, I guess, to April 22nd or so, but actually 25th to 25th, because it was scheduled to start March 25th, which is Monday, but it was pushed back 30 days to late April.
It may be pushed back more depending on the results of the conference they're having Monday.
And so we will probably know exactly how far back that trial is or is is not pushed back by the time we talk next week and i'm i'm sure all kinds of other chaos there's always chaos chaos chaos kill her yeah chaos chaos okay chaos.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:57]
| We're the agents of chaos.
|
Sam:
[1:33:01]
| Wasn't that like one of the cartoon villains and something Maxwell.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:05]
| Smart to Maxwell Smart oh.
|
Sam:
[1:33:08]
| Is Maxwell Smart was chaos okay yeah and of course Inspector Gadget was based on Maxwell Smart, So there's also that, although they changed the name of the bad guys.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:23]
| They said, we got somebody living in our condo. That's like that, that, that they say is an inspector gadget. Kind of.
He looks like him a little bit. I do admit that once the person told me.
|
Sam:
[1:33:35]
| Does like a robotic umbrella come out of his head?
|
Ivan:
[1:33:40]
| Almost.
|
Sam:
[1:33:40]
| Okay. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:42]
| He's Mr. Yeah. He's got a whole bunch of gadgets like that. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:33:46]
| Excellent. I, I, I need more of those myself, I guess.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:51]
| Yeah, we'll get that going for you.
|
Sam:
[1:33:53]
| Anyway, this is a little shorter than some of our shows, but we're in our target range, so we should just wrap it up.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:59]
| We are in the range.
|
Sam:
[1:34:01]
| Unless you have something else you want to get off your chest, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:04]
| I'm freezing.
|
Sam:
[1:34:06]
| You're freezing because it's raining and in the 60s?
|
Ivan:
[1:34:10]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:34:13]
| Yeah, okay, whatever.
Okay, let's wrap it up. the usual things for the end of the show.
Go to, no, not election graphs. You can go to electiongraphs.com as well, but no, go to curmudgeons-corner.com and there you can find our archives going back a long time.
And you can find links to our email, our Facebook, our Mastodon, all that kind of stuff.
You can get in touch with us, leave us messages, tell us what you think, whether it's good, bad, indifferent.
And you can also find, of course, a link to our Patreon, where since I did not win a billion dollars tonight, you can send it to me instead.
Sounds fair?
|
Ivan:
[1:35:00]
| Yes. Sounds fair.
|
Sam:
[1:35:02]
| You know, and Patreon is a monthly service where you say you're going to donate monthly. So a billion a month is fine.
You know, that works for me.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:14]
| Works for everybody.
|
Sam:
[1:35:15]
| Yes, exactly.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:16]
| We'll get it done.
|
Sam:
[1:35:18]
| Anyway, at various levels of our Patreon, well, well, well below a billion dollars, we will mention you on the show. We will ring a bell.
We will send you a postcard. We will send you a mug, all these kinds of fun things.
And at $2 a month or less, or if you just ask us, we will invite you to our curmudgeon score Slack where Yvonne and I, and a bunch of our listeners are chatting throughout the week.
and sharing news links and just generally having fun, the more the merrier.
We would love more of you to join.
So, Yvonne, what is one thing from the Commodions Corner Slack this week that is exciting and interesting and would make people want to join that we have not mentioned on the show at all?
|
Ivan:
[1:36:07]
| Well, let me see. I'm trying. Okay, here. Yeah, it's my favorites.
Spring Break's hottest shot comes with a slap to the face, Axios Miami.
Spring Breakers are lining up to get slapped in the face by a South Florida bartender whose $30 hurricane shots have become the hottest ticket in town.
So you go to this place, and this person goes and takes a picture of something, drops it on your head and then you take a shot of alcohol some drink that she makes and then she slaps you in the face and charges $30 a pop, apparently you know the man has been crazy she apparently is doing making about $6,000 a day like right now and she is basically look she's wearing a bikini while doing She actually looks very good.
But look, I'll say, look, I'm giving her total credit for her entrepreneurship because this is what she does. She wanted to live on a sailboat.
She's making six grand a day doing this. She's working two months a year and basically spending the rest of the year cruising and being able to live off the fact that she's in, think about it, $6,000 for 60 days.
She's making $360,000. She's making almost $400,000 in two months.
|
Sam:
[1:37:34]
| Beautiful.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:34]
| And then she's going and and like take it off and, and, and just, you know, relaxing the rest of the year. He's a fucking genius.
|
Sam:
[1:37:41]
| If anybody wants to pay me $30 to slap them, just let me know.
i will happily do it i will even wear a i will even wear a bikini okay no way maybe, for the bikini version you need to pay a hundred you know just a little bonus on top of that but under.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:06]
| Fifty dollars and we'll do it naked there you go okay there we go that way you know.
|
Sam:
[1:38:10]
| Uh Okay, sure, sure.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:14]
| Sure.
|
Sam:
[1:38:16]
| Yeah, well, anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:21]
| So let me, here's the description exactly. She dumps a first, you know, she goes, bartender Ayana Callas has built, you know, selling her signature slap shots, liquor chased with a wet smack across the face as her alter ego, Hurricane Ayana, dumps a pitcher of water on the drinker's head.
head beautiful it's genius like i gotta give her credit she's genius i mean especially you know look she's slapping dumb ass spring breakers you know look i've seen these people i want to slap them in the face every day i mean she gets she gets to do it and charges them for it it's great hey.
|
Sam:
[1:38:59]
| Look if you can get away with this shit more power to you.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:02]
| Absolutely 100 no.
|
Sam:
[1:39:05]
| No notes like Like, you know, like you said, working for two months a year, making a goddamn good living for it, and getting to spend the rest of the year on your boat.
And the job you do is slapping idiots.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:21]
| Yes! Slapping idiots! It's completely, I mean, Jesus! It's literally a public service!
And on that note.
|
Sam:
[1:39:32]
| Okay. On that note, we are done. Hey, as usual, as usual, as usual, as you know, there are some phrases that I just say way too much. As usual is one of those.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:44]
| As usual. Well, it's usual.
|
Sam:
[1:39:47]
| You know, but there are others. There are others. But as usual is one of them.
Anyway, have a great week, everybody.
Stay safe. Enjoy the news. I'm sure there'll be some fun stuff before we speak again. And yeah, stay safe. Have a great week.
|
Break:
[1:40:08]
| Goodbye. Bye.
|
Sam:
[1:40:29]
| Okay, that's it. I'm hitting stop.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:32]
| Stop. Stop, stop, stop.
|
|
|
