Automated Transcript
Ivan:
[0:00]
| Hello yvonne uh hello hang on one second i i i'm hanging on, i'm arguing with an attorney so hold on listen, okay jesus christ okay these people okay all right let's go okay you ready sure and.
|
Sam:
[0:32]
| As usual jump right in.
|
Ivan:
[0:34]
| Sure okay.
|
Sam:
[0:36]
| Here we go, Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Friday, April 19th, 2024.
It is 2.43 UTC as we're starting to record. I'm Sam Minter. Yvonne Bo is back with us this week. Hello, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:16]
| Hello. You don't want me to talk about travel.
|
Sam:
[1:19]
| No, no. I mean, if you really must. I mean, last week you were delayed because of travel, but you know. No, no.
|
Ivan:
[1:26]
| Well, I miss my... Well, I didn't miss my flight. I got there on time for my flight, but they didn't let me on the flight.
|
Sam:
[1:34]
| I said last week it was because of your terrorist connections.
|
Ivan:
[1:39]
| Yes, I'm sure that, you know, they had the body cavity search and all that other stuff. Yes. Always very nice at the airport.
|
Sam:
[1:47]
| So our agenda, as usual, we will do a but first segment where we talk about non-newsy stuff first. Yvonne will do something.
I will do something. and then we'll take a break and we'll do some more topical news related stuff.
|
Ivan:
[2:00]
| Topical topical i mean topical but a topical i mean that's like a isn't that what they say you know a topical ointment solution yeah isn't that you know supposed to be on the yes our our so i'm gonna we are gonna apply this show like an ointment.
|
Sam:
[2:17]
| Yes and or we will talk about applying ointments.
|
Ivan:
[2:22]
| That would be a departure from our normal coverage.
|
Sam:
[2:27]
| So anyway, if you don't want to talk about your body cavity search and all that as your butt first, what else do you have in mind?
|
Ivan:
[2:36]
| What do I have first? I'll tell you one thing.
Finally, my couches that I order in December will be delivered tomorrow morning.
|
Sam:
[2:46]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[2:47]
| I noticed that they were...
We ordered them and selected a specific fabric, which is what I guess takes so long. Why it takes that long.
So I guess they're coming from Asia. I can only guess.
Can't say for sure, but it must be.
Interesting thing is that on the site for the order, you could see some tracking details.
You could see that it seemed that it was on a ship.
|
Sam:
[3:19]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[3:20]
| For a long time. okay but they weren't very specific it was very cryptic stuff but you could tell it must have been on a ship and then it got offloaded a ship and then it got trucked and then the the interesting thing is that i thought there were two separate couches one was available earlier and like back and early like about a month a little bit over a month after we ordered it but they wouldn't deliver them separately okay so they held it at their warehouse until the second one came in which i thought was a little bit odd well.
|
Sam:
[3:59]
| You know i but.
|
Ivan:
[4:00]
| I but you know because well it cost right you know so they weren't a set we bought two of them that fit the living room we did select like the same fabric, but they weren't a set.
Now, they're from the same manufacturer, they're kind of like match, but they weren't...
I mean, I just thought they would deliver the first one first, but I think it does work in the end.
The one thing that I was worried about was getting rid of the old ones.
But that proved to be no issue.
|
Sam:
[4:41]
| I mean, They didn't, that wasn't like you, you dealt with that separately.
Cause the last couple of times I've got couches, the delivery and removal was part of like one service that we bought together.
|
Ivan:
[4:54]
| Well, the thing is, is that look, our old couches were not in really bad shape.
We're not in bad shape at all.
We just wanted to make a change because we've had them for almost 20 years, 18 years.
So we just wanted to make a change. there was some functionality that we wanted, that our old couches didn't have and I will say from my perspective and actually my wife agreed, the cushions with time grew more uncomfortable.
|
Sam:
[5:26]
| Yeah, yeah, I can see that.
|
Ivan:
[5:28]
| You know, they used to be far more comfortable. I remember this couch being far more comfortable.
And now it was like, my wife had commented this, and I thought maybe it was just me.
My wife one time sat down and said, you know what, this couch just doesn't feel comfortable anymore.
And I'm like, shit, okay, it's not me, okay? But I guess 18 years of sitting on the same cushion will do that.
|
Sam:
[5:52]
| Yeah, exactly. You know, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[5:55]
| I'm guessing they were firmer.
|
Sam:
[5:57]
| A little fluffier, whatever, you know, a little softer.
Yeah. Now, I mean, you know, I think I've mentioned on the show before, like, our couches are an absolute horrid form right now.
And we're still like, it is probably on the list of things we will take care of this year, actually, now. but this this is because we still have a kid who.
|
Ivan:
[6:21]
| Well you guys destroy them apparently you know regularly exactly.
|
Sam:
[6:25]
| We we absolutely destroy these things and by we i primarily.
|
Ivan:
[6:31]
| I'm not really sure how that you know that's one of those things i'd have to admit that's a little bit baffling to me I don't understand.
No, because I've had the same damn couches for 18 years.
Now, I will say, well, okay, we did have them reupholstered, okay?
We had, but it wasn't even all the cushions. We had the bottom cushions reupholstered once.
And they had frayed a little bit.
But part of the problem was that they were a very light color.
and we had washed them and they were denim. Okay.
And we had washed them several times, but they started to fray. Okay.
And so, um, we had them reupholstered and I remember that we did spend a lot of money and having them reupholstered because if I recall, um, I think it was my mother-in-law. Yeah, my mother-in-law did it.
So we just bought the fabric.
And she just reupholstered them. And they look great.
|
Sam:
[7:35]
| Well, I will tell you the trick to destroying furniture quickly.
|
Ivan:
[7:43]
| Okay. Dogs? No. No? Not the dogs? I kind of thought. Okay.
|
Sam:
[7:49]
| No, it's the child.
|
Ivan:
[7:51]
| Oh, geez. Really?
|
Sam:
[7:52]
| Like it's a large rambunctious heavy child who insists on using the couches as trampolines and jumping from couch to couch and taking cushions and tossing them and throwing them and using them as as as punching bags and all of this kind of stuff a few years of that will We'll take toll on a piece of furniture.
|
Ivan:
[8:19]
| Well, now, there is, okay, I will say that I, you know, not because he's jumped on the couches or whatnot, okay?
But I usually didn't really let him do that.
Not so much because of the couch itself, even though that was a concern because they would break the couch.
And so I was kind of like, could you please not do that? But more of a concern...
But I would say the biggest concern is with... We live in a condo.
We have downstairs neighbors.
So if you're doing that kind of stuff, it will...
Drive your neighbors crazy. And so I have to ask them to refrain from doing that kind of stuff, you know?
|
Sam:
[9:05]
| Uh-huh. So I have, I have actually started to write out in anticipation of buying a new couch this later this year.
And, and, you know, a set, you know, whatever, it's not, not just one piece.
It'll probably be a couple of pieces, but here, here are my criteria that I've written out. number one steel.
|
Ivan:
[9:24]
| And steel and concrete.
|
Sam:
[9:26]
| You know i looked at that i looked at okay, you know because this is actually one of my criteria is as sturdy as possible like i'm solid construction and i did look there are like you can essentially do something where you like build something out of like your cement blocks and then just put something soft on top of it right Right.
You know, Jesus.
|
Ivan:
[9:56]
| Okay. But damn, but, but you know, I could see if, if, if, if your child is really jumping on it a lot.
Yes. That could, that could risk injury.
|
Sam:
[10:04]
| It could. Well, you would, the cement you made. Yeah, I suppose.
|
Ivan:
[10:08]
| You just, you just put broken bones.
|
Sam:
[10:11]
| Yeah. Well, anyway, no, here's my list. No removable push pillows or cushions. This is number one.
|
Ivan:
[10:18]
| Oh, so you, okay. I've seen these. Yes.
There, You've got these because you can't, it won't turn into a sleep or anything.
Basically, it's just one piece.
|
Sam:
[10:29]
| One piece. Yes. Because all of the cushions and pillows and both my son and my wife do this. They move them.
They, they end up all over the living room everywhere except where they're supposed to be.
And it drives me absolutely nuts. Like no removable pillows or cushion built in one piece. another legs high enough that you can see what's underneath and remove it without lifting or moving the couch.
|
Ivan:
[10:56]
| Ah that that isn't important our current couch by the way does our current couches do allow that okay right.
|
Sam:
[11:04]
| Because like right now like.
|
Ivan:
[11:05]
| If anything does that there are there's it's never coming out i i get well.
|
Sam:
[11:09]
| You have to move.
|
Ivan:
[11:10]
| You have to lift the damn couch to get there right right Right.
|
Sam:
[11:13]
| Right, right. Number three, concede at least three people comfortably.
Okay? Okay. Because like right now, we have like basically...
We always have, like, if my wife and I are sitting on the couch, then first, my son wants to sit with us too.
And he's big enough now that our, we currently have two couches, but they're both sort of good size for like two and a half people, you know?
So like he's big enough now that fitting all three of us on one comfortably, it's a squeeze and it's not comfortable anymore for three of us on one.
And then as soon as the three of us are there, the dog who's 150 pounds wants to join too.
So, you know, at least one of them has to sort of be big enough for all of us to sit comfortably. And then like we had sort of like two couches that were enough for two and a half with a little space in between to walk in between the two.
So we may have to rearrange how things are arranged a bit so that one's a little bit bigger. And then we have like a single seat or something.
I don't know. We'll figure it out.
Obviously, next criteria. And it has to actually fit in our space, you know, because I spent a lot of time measuring.
|
Ivan:
[12:32]
| Believe me, because exactly that that could be, you know, look, the one. One thing about these couches is that we bought them before we even moved in here.
And I will say that they fit.
But it really wasn't the best fit for. Yeah.
No, it fit, but it was.
Now, it's just if I would have if I would have.
You know, we bought it before we moved in. If I would have already been living here and I already, I was, I would have.
|
Sam:
[13:04]
| You would have bought something different.
|
Ivan:
[13:06]
| I would have bought something different.
|
Sam:
[13:07]
| Yeah, no, absolutely. Like the key having like, you know, our space is such that if you go and look at like just general couches, like a lot of them would not fit well in the space.
Like even if, even if they technically fit, like you said, it would sort of, it would make the space less comfortable to you.
|
Ivan:
[13:27]
| A lot less comfortable to use.
|
Sam:
[13:29]
| So I definitely want to have something where whatever pieces we have, I know sort of where I want to put them and how to arrange them so that you can still walk around the room properly and there's a flow and you're not getting in each other's way or blocking the TV while you're watching, you know, all this kind of stuff.
The next one is related to the at least three comfortably, a matching second piece for at least a fourth person, maybe more. you know so well.
|
Ivan:
[13:58]
| And that was the thing about that we had that matching second piece that that's you know we you know that's the one that was ready first.
|
Sam:
[14:06]
| Right right not the other okay next up and this relates to the sturdy but no moving parts those will just get out of alignment and break so like we've had them before that have like little built-in recliner and stuff and those are nice i have enjoyed that feature except that.
|
Ivan:
[14:23]
| If you have the rambunctious child that will be broken inside no time at all.
|
Sam:
[14:28]
| Yes and so yeah i just want a solid thing like one object no no removable pillows no removable cushions no moving parts etc and associated with that as well no electronics like not the current couch oh yeah you.
|
Ivan:
[14:47]
| Told me the fault god.
|
Sam:
[14:48]
| Yeah you not told.
|
Ivan:
[14:49]
| Me the one with the usb ports that basically were made out of it.
|
Sam:
[14:53]
| Was garbage it was absolute garbage Like it was garbage.
|
Ivan:
[14:56]
| Yeah. I mean, they were like, you know, disposable material, basically. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[15:00]
| I mean, that was, that was two couches ago, not the ones we have now, but it was like, they broke within a week of us having them.
Like it just had the USB charge ports. Right. Which we thought like, okay, that's going to be really convenient. We're constantly wanting to charge our stuff.
Like when we have it plugged into a power strip on the wall, they always get unplugged and lost and moved and you know, whatever.
And, and so like, it would be really convenient to have a built into couch.
|
Ivan:
[15:25]
| I got to tell you that the one thing that I have done, okay, is, I got a while back and I got a newer one just not that long ago because the other one broke. But we'd had it for a long time.
It's this USB cable extender.
|
Sam:
[15:42]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[15:43]
| So it makes it that I've got one of these like bigger brick iPad chargers. Okay.
Connected to one of these. And so the cable for the charging.
|
Sam:
[15:55]
| Is it like retractable?
|
Ivan:
[15:56]
| It's like over 10 feet. oh.
|
Sam:
[15:58]
| Like i never buy a cable less than 10 feet.
|
Ivan:
[16:00]
| But but it's like but you know they're not that easy to find like a lightning cable they're all like it's actually even i'm sure it's longer than that i have to like basically like roll it up but the thing is it's long enough that you can you can plug in the you can plug in the whatever anywhere you can sit anywhere in the living room and have my my standard.
|
Sam:
[16:26]
| Cable from anchor that i buy probably at least one a month because like they're always getting lost or destroyed is is a.
|
Ivan:
[16:34]
| Is a 10.
|
Sam:
[16:36]
| Foot usbc on one end lightning on the other and i i buy them regular.
|
Ivan:
[16:41]
| This one's longer than the 10 feet okay all right this goes longer all right i think the extension is 10 feet and then you've got the few couple of extra feet of the actual lightning cable at the end of it as well.
|
Sam:
[16:53]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[16:53]
| Okay. All right. Yeah. So, so got that. Okay.
So I got that. So that, that's very helpful for your situation, but you apparently have 10 foot cables.
|
Sam:
[17:02]
| Oh yeah. All the time, all the time. 10 foot cables.
Every time I, I have on a few occasions said, said to myself, like for one reason or another, I've gotten a shorter cable, like three foot and six foot cables are also common lengths.
They also make one foot ones, but like you have to be really confident.
you don't need much length to buy a one foot cable right i.
|
Ivan:
[17:23]
| Mean i i mean i mean i've got i have a lot of those shorter cables look like like i'm showing this of course you guys in the podcast can't see it but let's say i'm seeing me on video so that looks.
|
Sam:
[17:34]
| Like a three foot right there.
|
Ivan:
[17:35]
| It's three feet yeah i guess this is like yeah yeah i mean this is about the length that i I usually get, I don't really don't need.
|
Sam:
[17:45]
| Every time I have gotten a six foot or less cable, I've always ended up regretting it.
So I, at this point I always get 10 feet unless I have a specific reason where I know I want a short one for some purpose.
Like that one, one purpose I'm now using, like when I have like up carry around with me, I now I'm getting the magnetic ones that just attach.
But before that, when I had like the battery packs that needed to be connected with a wire for, I would get like a three foot for that because I, you know, if you're, if you're connecting a battery pack in your pocket to a phone in your hand, a 10 foot cable is a little much.
But, but other than that, other than that for like around the house or the car or whatever.
|
Ivan:
[18:31]
| Well, like on my desk, I mean, I look, I, I, I mean, I don't need a 10, I mean, I'm sorry. A 10 foot cable on my desk is really inconvenient.
|
Sam:
[18:38]
| No, here, here, here's my 10 foot cable. Yes.
|
Ivan:
[18:42]
| And that's very inconvenient. You got this damn thing that's dangling. No.
|
Sam:
[18:45]
| Oh, see. And that's right. You, you care about like cable tidiness and the shit like that.
|
Ivan:
[18:50]
| No, it's not that you also could get tangled in between it. You should wind up jerking stuff accidentally. like yeah.
|
Sam:
[18:57]
| Maybe i don't know i i don't uh.
|
Ivan:
[18:59]
| Yeah maybe i've had there may be a reason why you need to get them like once a month you.
|
Sam:
[19:07]
| Usually it's because they get stolen or lost like and by.
|
Ivan:
[19:11]
| How do you get stolen or lost that oh what do you what do you got a band of thieves going through through that place every day what the hell i.
|
Sam:
[19:19]
| I have a daughter in her late 20s and if chargers are left unattended they tend to disappear because somebody else takes them.
|
Ivan:
[19:29]
| Well i will say that my my wife does do that to me sometimes my.
|
Sam:
[19:33]
| Wife sometimes takes them as well.
|
Ivan:
[19:35]
| Or i will have a charger strategically my wife i have a charger strategically positioned and all of a sudden well it's gone and i'm like what and then she left it somewhere she doesn't know where but it doesn't happen that often.
I will say that I've given her enough cables in our car and stuff that I've noticed that it doesn't happen frequently. It just happens sometimes.
|
Sam:
[19:53]
| I have tried for years and years now to make sure every place in the house where a charger might be used has a block and a cable or a block and multiple cables.
I usually get a block that has more than one slot on it.
And they inevitably disappear and I inevitably end up replacing them.
And I don't know where they go they probably go the same place socks go you know i don't know that's.
|
Ivan:
[20:18]
| What i said.
|
Sam:
[20:19]
| But.
|
Ivan:
[20:21]
| I i i mean i i i will say that i i you know i guess yeah i mean we have like, i mean there are chargers like i mean my my desk has a ton of plugs and cables and to charge i mean there's you know there's multiple places you can charge by desk right now i mean it's just but but in the kitchen there is like a station there with a whole bunch and in the again the the bedroom and my son's bed yeah they're definitely yeah we're we're like and.
|
Sam:
[20:51]
| Then you know originally they were all usba to lightning.
|
Ivan:
[20:55]
| And then like we've oh but the eu wanted to help us out and they've simplified my life by making me have to have fucking all these extra cables now whenever i go thank you eu i really that was so helpful especially since i have a fucking you know airpods they still use lightning cables and i have a fucking phone that uses usbc okay oh yes oh thank you thank you so fucking much okay.
|
Sam:
[21:29]
| Okay nice nice pegging the meter again on uh the rant.
|
Ivan:
[21:32]
| Fucking assholes you want to talk about one of the most unhelpful fucking things that the The EU has done. Why did they take on.
You know. There's a lot of other shit to take on.
Okay, but I've got a fucking mouse that doesn't have a fucking USB-C cable.
I got a computer that has USB-C. I got a fucking phone that's got USB-C.
I got this damn thing with lightning.
Gee, yes, make it so much fucking simpler. And oh, all the little like micro USBs that I've got all over the fucking place now.
Fuck.
|
Sam:
[22:08]
| Yes, yes. Yes. Now, I actually enjoy the fact that USB-C charges faster than USB-A, so that's nice.
But yeah, as you said, we've slowly been transitioning out the chargers from one technology to another.
And at this point, only one person in this house has an iPhone new enough, so its charge point is USB-C instead of lightning, but it'll soon be all of us.
And then so we have to do another cable transition and yeah yeah.
|
Ivan:
[22:40]
| But but but that's my point but that's the thing right where where i've got my phone has usbc my wife's and my son's phone are lightning so i i've got to carry now all these fucking extra cables.
|
Sam:
[22:54]
| Uh-huh i.
|
Ivan:
[22:57]
| I yeah well anyway i have not mentioned my fucking irritation and.
|
Sam:
[23:02]
| Now you've blown out the the sound and everybody's ears with with screaming about it but yeah no i understand the frustration i like and again i also i wouldn't mind the usbc thing as much if they had retained the basic notion of if it fits it's the right cord and we don't have that like well.
|
Ivan:
[23:28]
| Yeah we don't no yeah that you're right.
|
Sam:
[23:31]
| No you you usb USB USB-C cords are not all equivalent.
|
Ivan:
[23:36]
| Right?
|
Sam:
[23:36]
| Some of, some of them can charge. Some of them can't charge.
Some of them can do data. Some of them can't do, some of them can do high speed data to like serve a monitor.
Some of them can't. So you have to know like which USB-C cable you have.
They're not all the same.
And, and I just like, I like the idea of, Hey, yeah. Okay, fine.
Make all the charge ports the same. Make them all USB-C. USB-C is fine.
I don't mind USB-C, but make it so that like these different purposes have different ends so that you can distinguish them visually and make sure you have the right cord. Because, you know, of course.
|
Ivan:
[24:18]
| The problem is that then you make all the different ends and then it's it's.
|
Sam:
[24:24]
| Yeah, no, I know. I know there are downsides of that as well.
But I think it's a reasonable thing to just say like.
There should just generally be a principle that if the, if the plug fits.
|
Ivan:
[24:36]
| I think, I mean, what the hell they should all be data and power. That's it.
|
Sam:
[24:42]
| And, and all high speed.
|
Ivan:
[24:43]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[24:44]
| Anyway, but like, no, but I think the general principle, and this goes across more than just USB-C cables, but like the whole world should operate on the principle of like, you know, if you're making cords with ends.
make sure that you can't if you can put it in it's the right damn cable you know i feel like in the olden days like there was no mistaking you know a vga port to a parallel port for printing you know it would just it's you you couldn't mix them up they're entirely different shape entirely different size whatever and so you knew you had the right cord just because it fit into to the port yep.
|
Ivan:
[25:28]
| Yep no no no i i get that but but even still we had some issues with some of the usb a ones also were quirky that way.
|
Sam:
[25:42]
| Well yeah but the the other problem you had there and i understand wanting to avoid this was every single damn device had a proprietary cord yeah and i understand why that's bad like i don't want that you know i don't want to have to worry about i have to buy the cord that works with this device it it should be more like okay i want a power cord well.
|
Ivan:
[26:07]
| It wound up with like we got it with weird things i remember that for a while we had like almost everybody had adopted like ibm ps2 ports for for a long while because those were popular and then, well, those went away.
But yeah, I, I, Okay. Well, I think we've jerked the cable long enough.
|
Sam:
[26:31]
| Enough, enough on cables. So is it, is it time for my movie?
|
Ivan:
[26:36]
| Time for your movie? Yes.
|
Sam:
[26:40]
| So this is one that, you know, Hey, behind the scenes, for those of you who aren't on the commercial corner slack, we have a channel on the slack for potential topics.
And I put my movie list on there months in advance. and Pete, who is on our Slack now, Pete, Peter, which do you prefer these days?
In college, we called you Pete, but you seem to go by Peter right in, you know, thing.
But my name is Samuel on stuff as well. And I go by Sam.
|
Ivan:
[27:08]
| Exactly. Nobody calls you Samuel. Hey, Samuel. We'll start calling you Samuel.
|
Sam:
[27:15]
| Every time I meet new people at work, they ask, is it Sam or Samuel?
And I'll say it's Sam, unless it's something super formal.
|
Ivan:
[27:22]
| Samuel. Yes.
|
Sam:
[27:23]
| Well, Antonio with a Portuguese accent because Samuel Antonio or Samuel Samuel Antonio. Anyway.
Samuel.
|
Ivan:
[27:35]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[27:37]
| Anyway, Pete got very excited because I put on the list escape to which mountain.
|
Ivan:
[27:45]
| However, escape to which mountain?
|
Sam:
[27:47]
| Now, Pete made clear that when he was a child, he very much loved the 1975 version of the film, which is the one that I mainly remembered as well.
But what I watched and I have a few years ago, I watched the 1975 version and I've been sort of going through the whole Witch Mountain series.
And I reviewed that on the show way back when. But this time I am talking about the 1995 remake of Escape to Witch Mountain.
and it it would and i'm i'm gonna give it a thumb sideways sideways sideways the the original escape to witch mountain from 1975 also probably deserves a thumb sideways it's mainly good for nostalgia value for like gen x kids like us like it's a walt disney whatever and fuck.
|
Ivan:
[28:44]
| I i'm pretty sure I watched it, but I guess I, I wasn't really like, I didn't find it memorable.
|
Sam:
[28:50]
| Yeah. It, it, the whole series was sort of a classic series.
It's, it's basically with, without spoiler spoilers, cause it's the basic premise of the whole series. It's kids who are aliens.
Uh, you know, they, they're, they're kids who are living and they discover they, that they're really aliens with superpowers and they end up having to go back and escape to their own people.
and then there are a couple sequel movies as well but the 1995 remake is weird because it really is a remake it's not a it's not a sequel it's not a reboot where they take the same concept and change it up a lot it's it's practically i don't know if it's actually a scene for scene.
|
Sam:
[29:38]
| Shot by shot remake but it is incredibly similar to the original just redone 20 years later with different actors and actresses so like you for somebody who remembered the 1975 version and i did because i re-watched it not that many years ago there was a lot of just weird like Like, okay, this is kind of like what we just watched, but just a little bit different. And it's weird.
And, you know, and, and also one thing that got me is one of the kids in it was Elizabeth Moss, who is, you know, now a more well-known actress as an adult. adult.
|
Ivan:
[30:30]
| Do you mean adult films or adult as an older.
|
Sam:
[30:34]
| No no no not adult fence as in she is now in okay.
|
Ivan:
[30:38]
| Just double checking i'm like okay.
|
Sam:
[30:40]
| She she you know she's got a whole career where she's been in all kinds of things over the years let's see what what are some that are notable she i I think more on TV.
I don't know. I'm looking, she's, she's not been a, I guess it's not a star star, but like a common, you know, second character whatever they call a supporting actor kind of thing and has been in a lot of stuff you like i'm sure you're looking her up you probably recognize the face if you don't, no you look her up again elizabeth moss elizabeth anyway the point is i recognized her from an adult but she okay okay yeah yeah okay okay yeah and like most of the stuff i don't.
|
Ivan:
[31:34]
| Know from what but But yeah.
|
Sam:
[31:36]
| Most of the stuff I've seen her in, she's probably in her 30s.
But in this movie, she's like 12 or something.
|
Ivan:
[31:44]
| Girl, interrupt. Get him to the Greek. Okay, I saw that.
|
Sam:
[31:48]
| Okay, you're checking out the...
|
Ivan:
[31:51]
| I guess she was in the West Wing.
|
Sam:
[31:54]
| Mm-hmm.
|
Ivan:
[31:55]
| Okay. I mean, I recognize her.
|
Sam:
[32:00]
| But all I'm saying, all I'm saying, it doesn't matter who this particular actress is. What was weird is having someone that you recognize and know of as an adult in a child role.
Like she was probably 12 at the time, but I think her character was like supposed to be 10 or something.
So, you know, it was just weird because, you know, it's like you keep seeing this kid running around, but they've got a face of an adult you were very familiar with from other things.
yeah you know and so but you know again sideways this is one where i was sort of like why did they and another thing to mention i could not find this at the time directly on any of the streaming services i found a really low quality vhs transfer that to watch on youtube tube or something of the oh god like that sounds.
|
Ivan:
[32:59]
| That that doesn't sound very enjoyable.
|
Sam:
[33:03]
| You know because like you'd expect like okay disney disney plus has all the archives although i know i know they've been pulling things left and right and reducing inventory and all kinds of garbage but like you would expect they would just put all this stuff for like the nostalgia people who want to watch the old shows and maybe not a lot of people are going to watch it but just put it out there. Right.
But no, it was not available on any of the standard services.
And like I said, it's like low quality, clearly somebody digitized their old VHS tape who'd been through quite a few cycles already.
And if you remember recorded off the air VHS, the quality wasn't great to begin with.
And if you let it age and be watched a whole bunch of times, it, it degrades.
But, you know, my main impression was like, A, it was weird with the Elizabeth Moss thing I mentioned, and Robert Vaughn was in it too, by the way. But it was...
It was sort of like, why did you bother remaking this? Like, usually, like.
|
Ivan:
[34:08]
| I mean, there have been, I mean, it's.
|
Sam:
[34:10]
| There have been good remakes, but like, to me.
|
Ivan:
[34:13]
| No, no, no, no, no. I was going to say that there's a lot of remakes of a lot of mediocre shit.
|
Sam:
[34:19]
| Yeah, well, and to me, like, the key difference is like, when you remake it, are you really bringing something new and different and valuable to it?
it like it because if the answer is yes like if you're really re like there are two kinds of sort of bring things back kind of things that i like one is you're actually doing a sequel you're like taking whatever the original property is and you're doing here's what happened to the characters 20 years later or whatever sure yeah so and sometimes those work out sometimes they don't but you've seen a lot of those like most recently there was there have been a couple new seasons of fraser okay and it's just picking up the story with after like a 20-year gap or whatever right right right and okay fine and sometimes that works out sometimes that doesn't but i respect that and you know and and there have been a number of series that have done that you know we mentioned before like you like law and order and i'm now watching season one of law and order and they They started brand new seasons after a big long gap.
|
Ivan:
[35:25]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[35:25]
| You know, okay. And I watched Doctor Who. Doctor Who had a, you know, a huge gap from like the 1980s to the early 2000s.
And, you know, they brought it back and it was a continuation of the original. Okay. I like those.
I respect those. Sometimes they're done really well. Sometimes they fall flat on their face, but okay, cool.
Also, sometimes, okay. okay, I tend to prefer the continuations, but sometimes people have done sort of reboots where they started over from the beginning.
So they retell the story, but they make.
|
Sam:
[36:01]
| Changes significant changes to make it different from the original like the the tone is different or it's it's not just new actors and update the special effects or whatever it's actually like you're trying to do something different and bring something new to it so like if you watch the original and you watch the new one it may have some similarities because you're you're fundamentally using the same material, some of the same characters, but they are fundamentally different movies to watch.
Like you watch the one and you watch the other and don't feel like you're just watching a replay, but with different actors, you know, but this kind of thing where it's like, just you, you, you remake the same thing.
You change very, very little and you put in new actors and you update it.
I guess you record it higher quality.
I don't know. Like it, it just seems like, why?
Like, you're just, if you're not going to change anything, if you're not going to do something different than the original, you're just remaking it to remake it. Why?
What are you trying to do? I don't know. And so it was the same general story. It was okay.
|
Sam:
[37:13]
| But it was like, why? The original was fine.
This doesn't give you anything new, different, or better than the original version of it.
And I know, like, somebody's going to be here. and say, I'm a connoisseur of these things. And actually, they changed a whole bunch of stuff.
And, well, okay, fine. They changed some stuff. But nothing that, like, really made you feel like it was worth doing this.
So, anyway, that's my thoughts.
Thumbs sideways.
|
Ivan:
[37:43]
| Well, thumbs sideways. All right. So, Sam?
|
Sam:
[37:47]
| It is time, then, to take a quick break.
|
Ivan:
[37:51]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[37:52]
| And then we will come back and Yvonne will pick our first newsy topic after this.
Okay, here we are. So, Yvonne, we had a bunch of news this week. Where do we start?
|
Ivan:
[39:10]
| Let's see. All right. Let's start with the Trump in New York trial.
|
Sam:
[39:17]
| Trump in New York?
|
Ivan:
[39:18]
| Trump is in New York.
|
Sam:
[39:19]
| And so that jury selection has moved quicker than anticipated, at least so far, like people anticipated it would take a couple of weeks probably to fully seat the jury.
As of when we are recording Thursday night, US time, they have picked all 12 jurors and one alternate and have five more alternates to go.
We did have a couple of people that were selected at one point drop out and then they were replaced.
and it's anticipated at this point that they'll probably fill the last five slots on Friday, tomorrow as we're recording and we'll actually have opening arguments on Monday unless things get delayed unexpectedly.
So this is moving right along and there've been, what else?
As part of jury selection, they're trying to figure out if people are biased against Donald Trump, which of course, you know, whatever. And they're in Manhattan. So there are a lot of people who are biased against Donald Trump. They had, Hey, you know.
|
Ivan:
[40:24]
| I not wait, wait. So you're not telling me that they're, that the jury pool is showing up and it's all these people that are like, just absolutely love the Donald.
|
Sam:
[40:34]
| Apparently not. And so one thing the judge did here, which was a little bit unusual, I guess, guess is because they knew this would be a problem.
There's a, the first thing they do to all these jurors is just ask, do you think you can be unbiased or do you have any reason why you can't do this trial?
And basically anybody who says yes to that, anybody who says they don't think they can be unbiased or anybody who says they've got a conflict instantly let go.
No questions asked, no having to justify it, no having to like, whatever somebody shows up and just says, yeah, no, I can't do this. Okay.
You're out. and then they conduct the rest of the process on the group that's left and so far each time they've bought brought a batch of jurors in it's a bit been about half of them that just right off the bat say i can't do this and are out you.
|
Ivan:
[41:26]
| Know i'm wondering you know i was talking about being on this jury and i'm they're going through a social media post i'm not sure how they're going through it but i i'm like wondering i i'm just like curious as to what the process i mean i've i've been seeing that they're doing that but i just don't know how how they're doing it but i i i'm curious as you know if i got pulled on this jury okay you know like i i remember i'm wondering you know what they can see because i i i will freely admit that i almost got kicked off twitter in 2016 because I well.
|
Sam:
[42:04]
| You deleted did you actually delete Twitter or did you just stop using it you deleted it right.
|
Ivan:
[42:10]
| No, no, I did delete the account. I'm wondering if those are there because I decided to go and personally send messages to Donald Trump, tell him to go fuck himself every day for quite a long time.
|
Sam:
[42:22]
| Yes, I remember. I am guessing you would have been eliminated, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[42:27]
| I may have been eliminated.
|
Sam:
[42:30]
| Well, and so here's what they did after that first stage. They had a questionnaire of like 40 some questions that they asked everybody of standard questions.
|
Ivan:
[42:37]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[42:38]
| And so they would bring people in a batch at a time and ask them to say the answers to those standard questions out loud.
And then, you know, and of course you have each side had a certain number of challenges that they can use on anything other than prohibited things.
Like they can't say, I don't want you because you're black.
But they each had 10, I think, uncontested challenges that they could just do whatever reason. And they do have an unlimited number that they can use for cause, but they have to explain to the judge and the judge has to agree.
|
Ivan:
[43:13]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[43:15]
| And so a bunch of people were eliminated with the standard questions and the ones that were left get, you know, brought into the jury box and both sides get to ask whatever questions they want before deciding whether or not to use their challenges, et cetera, et cetera.
And so part of what was happening in that last phase was what you were talking about, about social media.
and they were they were digging through these people's social media as you said and saying you know did you say this can you read this out loud did you say this and and the thing is, this is all in front of donald trump donald trump has to be sitting there and so they're having people i would gladly.
|
Ivan:
[43:56]
| Read you know all the times i told donald trump to go fuck himself.
|
Sam:
[44:02]
| You know?
|
Ivan:
[44:03]
| Yes. I will say this. Yes.
You know, I have, I don't know if, have you, I don't know if you've been dragged into jury duty. It's been a while.
|
Sam:
[44:12]
| I've never served a time. I got served on a jury.
I, I like four or five times I've had to come in and then not had, and then not been not even brought into the section where they question you.
I've only been to the part where they ask you questions once, and I did not get on the jury.
|
Ivan:
[44:35]
| I got to the point that I was actually impaneled once, but they made a deal.
|
Sam:
[44:41]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[44:43]
| So they didn't go to trial.
|
Sam:
[44:46]
| The case I was at was, the case that I got the furthest was a drunk driving case.
And they were like, I don't want you. So I didn't get on the jury.
|
Ivan:
[44:58]
| Not mine was a guy that stole a car, but I, You know, being fair in the face of the law is important.
I think that even with a scumbag like him, I mean, I would wait for the case to be presented and make a decision based on the law of what is presented there.
And I think that that's the thing.
|
Sam:
[45:25]
| Well, and that's what and by the way, lots of the lots of the jurors basically said what you said is, yes, of course, I have a Donald an opinion on Donald Trump.
them, but I will listen to the evidence and I will be fair. And I think I can be fair, et cetera.
And, and the, you know, the ones that are picked, you know, are in that category, but they are rejecting the ones that out, out and out have, you know, incredibly vitriolic things that they have posted.
|
Ivan:
[45:54]
| You know, which I think is why I would not never get a battle to something like this, because I don't think it takes too, too, too, too long of a.
|
Sam:
[46:05]
| Search like here are a couple of examples and there were dozens and dozens i just have one that i found quickly one juror who was not impaneled said i wouldn't believe trump if his tongue was notarized that's.
|
Ivan:
[46:25]
| Good one i like that one i got your guys good.
|
Sam:
[46:27]
| And then just in the same juror in 2016, and she apparently actually said that in court when she was asked about being fair or whatever, like, okay.
But she also posted in 2016 that he's racist, sexist, narcissist, et cetera.
And, you know, all kinds of things. And people were, you know, one of the jurors who was rejected, I believe had posted videos of people celebrating when he lost in 2020, 20, you know, all kinds of stuff like this.
And I fully understand that. And one, one of the jurors who wasn't paneled and then was taken off again when they were reexamined had.
Was taken off because he lied on his questionnaire.
|
Ivan:
[47:13]
| Well, that's no good.
|
Sam:
[47:15]
| He was asked if he had any encounters with law enforcement, and he said no.
It turns out he was arrested in 1991 for ripping up Republican campaign signs.
|
Ivan:
[47:27]
| Well, it's not good.
|
Sam:
[47:28]
| Right. And so it's like, you know, okay, fine. Yeah. A, you lied about it.
|
Ivan:
[47:35]
| But I also, well, I can believe that maybe he didn't remember.
|
Sam:
[47:39]
| He said he didn't remember. He said he didn't remember. It was a long time ago.
|
Ivan:
[47:43]
| Jesus, this is 33 years ago.
|
Sam:
[47:45]
| Maybe he didn't remember. On the other hand, you'd think you'd remember being arrested and going to court.
|
Ivan:
[47:51]
| Sam, you don't remember what the hell you did three months ago.
|
Sam:
[47:55]
| That is true. However.
|
Ivan:
[47:57]
| You think an arrest. I don't know. Maybe it depends how often this guy was drunk. Who the hell knows?
|
Sam:
[48:04]
| He gets arrested, but he said he never got arrested, right?
|
Ivan:
[48:08]
| Well, no, but I mean, look, I wonder how sober he was when he did this.
I mean, it could be the guy was completely drunk off his ass and he's got arrested for this. He doesn't fucking remember what the hell happened next week.
|
Sam:
[48:20]
| Maybe. I don't know. There's a whole story and there's more to it than just the signs.
Anyway, regardless, A, he lied and B, it seemed he has an issue with Republicans.
republicans so i'm like okay and he's she well.
|
Ivan:
[48:35]
| There you go i'm i'm screwed i'm not getting it you know once again.
|
Sam:
[48:39]
| He did an interview with the press after this and he's complaining that the judge didn't stand up for him and let him stay on the jury and i'm like okay dude i'm sorry i wouldn't have stood up for you either just.
|
Ivan:
[48:50]
| Just just give it give it up man give it up man okay you know yeah you're you're you know you're going home you're.
|
Sam:
[48:56]
| And the, and another thing to mention is there was another juror who was selected and came to the judge the next day and was like, I don't think I can do this after all.
And the reason was, and I noted this at the time I saw it, like several press outlets basically published bios of everybody who'd made it onto the jury.
Like it's an anonymous jury. They're not releasing their names, but they were like, and, uh, you know, an oncology nurse who lives in this area and moved here from whatever, like basically, and went to school in this place.
|
Ivan:
[49:36]
| Basically enough pieces that you could just, yeah, you go on LinkedIn and type a few things and get figure it out.
|
Sam:
[49:42]
| Yeah. Like, you know, and look in many cases, it was enough to actually fully docs the person if you wanted to.
Like if, if you had all these pieces of information, you could narrow it down to one person, but in this person, in this particular person's case, and it was the oncology nurse, I think it was more people who knew her read the description.
|
Ivan:
[50:04]
| He knew who she was. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[50:06]
| And it was like, oh, it's you. It's you. And they started calling her up and saying, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to be on the kid?
And she's like, I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm out.
And so they did replace those two that were dropped off the jury.
|
Ivan:
[50:24]
| Well, what about the other one? I think the other one was some kind of like raving Trump Trumpy.
|
Sam:
[50:29]
| No, the two that were left off were the one we just discussed.
It was the one who lied about the 1991 arrest and it was the, this lady.
|
Ivan:
[50:35]
| But I heard, I thought that there was one guy that got bumped off and then when they were pulling off more information, he was like on some Trump network thing doing, saying something.
|
Sam:
[50:46]
| There, there were, there were people who were kicked off at earlier stages for that kind of stuff. The two that were actually on the jury were the two.
|
Ivan:
[50:54]
| Oh, so this one, they didn't get on panel. It's just some guy that got kicked off and he was bitching about it. I think it was. Okay.
|
Sam:
[51:00]
| Yeah, like the one with the signs is the one that we were talking about that was bitching about it.
But, you know, the other thing to note is that there were quite a few people who gave interviews that didn't get on the jury at all and just talking about the experience.
experience and that one one there were a couple that stood out but one i remember is i think one of the first ones that did an interview basically was like you know it was kind of intimidating you come into the room and you see donald trump and you just blah blah blah but then after a few minutes it was like oh he's just a guy you know like you hear all this sort of bigger than life stuff because he was president and he's got this reputation going back decades and blah, blah, blah.
That's just some guy, you know, and it sort of burst the bubble.
And I, I, I suspect that's something that you probably are going to hear from a lot of the other jurors because the, the other part that's been happening this week is.
|
Sam:
[52:06]
| Donald Trump's still been having trouble with this whole idea of he has to fucking sit there all day, every day while this goes on.
He was chastised by the judge once for mouthing something at one of the jurors.
The juror was being questioned about something and saying something and forgetting the details.
The judge said he couldn't hear what Trump said, but it was obvious that Trump was directing some comment at the juror.
And the judge was like, no, that is not to happen again.
I will not have anything even remotely approaching jury intimidation here.
That's not happening. In another case, the judge reprimanded him because he was trying to use his phone. And it was like, nope, put that away while you're in here.
And Trump was unhappy about that. We know in his other trials, Trump has generally been, had trouble behaving and so this trial is apparently no different he apparently fell asleep a couple times as well.
|
Ivan:
[53:14]
| Well that was very noticed that he was falling asleep.
|
Sam:
[53:20]
| Apparently he was just praying Yvonne, He was praying. He was praying.
|
Ivan:
[53:26]
| Oh, he was praying. Oh, I see. He's praying.
Just like he planned to go to Barron's, you know, graduation.
You know, somebody, by the way, was pulling pictures of Ivanka's graduation.
My school, guess who was notably absent from all the pictures they found?
|
Sam:
[53:44]
| So Michael Cohen. So just to fill this out, he wanted to be excused from trial on the day of Barron's graduation. The judge, by the way, has not said no, but he hasn't said yes either.
He basically said, if the trial is going along according to schedule, maybe.
If we're running behind, no. No, which, which, you know, Trump's whole thing is like delay everything, slow everything down, blah, blah, blah.
So that conflicts with that. But when and so Trump is all posting about how outraged he is that he can't go to Barron's graduation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Michael Cohen, who, of course, is going to be one of the witnesses at this trial, but also like spent a lot of time in the Trump inner circle over the last couple of decades. AIDS.
His comment on this was, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was basically, if Trump went to Barron's graduation, it would be the first graduation of all his kids that he's ever been to.
|
Ivan:
[54:47]
| That's pretty disgusting. So disgusting. That is so fucking disgusting.
I mean, it's just utterly disgusting. It's just another reason why this man is just, vile. None of them.
|
Sam:
[55:06]
| None of them.
|
Ivan:
[55:06]
| None of them.
|
Sam:
[55:07]
| None of them.
|
Ivan:
[55:09]
| Fuck.
Not one. Jesus. I mean, I figured it, but, you know, hearing it confirmed by Michael, you know, it's just.
Jesus.
|
Sam:
[55:22]
| So, well, they've also.
|
Ivan:
[55:24]
| No, not, not, not surprised.
|
Sam:
[55:26]
| Also, the prosecution has twice now asked the judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt for his social media posts since the trial has started.
The first time they made this request was about posts he made before the trial started.
The second time they made requests is about posts he's made since the trial started and where he is continuing to post things that disparage various people related to the trial.
One of the most recent was he quoted some guy on Fox talking about how there were liberals specifically trying to lie their way onto the jury to convict Donald Trump.
|
Sam:
[56:12]
| And, you know, so basically they're like, look, he is continuously every day posting things that are obviously intended to taint this process in one way or another.
Please hold him in contempt. And the judge is like, we're going to have the hearing on that next week. So it's scheduled for next Tuesday.
He's not making any immediate decisions, did not seem to be in a big rush on that. And, you know, there are two bits on that.
One is like, okay, he could, what the prosecution kind of wanted him to do, they requested a $3,000 fine, which obviously, even with Trump's money problems, he can handle $3,000.
He won't even notice $3,000.
|
Sam:
[56:59]
| But that and a warning you know and apparently in new york we've talked about before all of these judges they're not just going to like throw them in jail you know they are going to go through an escalated process where the first time something happens they'll slap them on the wrist and tell them not to do it again the second time will be a little bit stronger the third time a little stronger and eventually if it keeps happening the consequences will escalate and And yes, they could eventually be jailed, but they're not going to do that right away.
And apparently in New York, that's prescribed by law as well.
You have to ramp that up. You can't just jump straight to jail.
And, you know, there are lots of reasons to think the judge doesn't want to go there anyway.
But, and, you know, what Trump always does is try to figure out what the line is. Like, how far can he go?
|
Ivan:
[57:50]
| The thing is that the line that he has pushed has usually been civil, and he is finally in a criminal court where he's being forced to be there.
And one of the things about this trial and the charges that some people were mentioning is, well, typically people don't go to jail for this.
I would say they're right, but there is a big caveat. to that, okay?
Most people that are charged with something like this are not dumb enough to go to trial.
They will plea this out.
|
Sam:
[58:29]
| Yes. Like we've said before, like any rational person for all four of these cases.
|
Ivan:
[58:37]
| Make a plea deal.
|
Sam:
[58:38]
| Would have done something else long ago. Would have would have pled out long ago in the case of the documents in Florida.
Just give the damn things back. The first time you were asked.
|
Ivan:
[58:47]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
|
Sam:
[58:49]
| You know, all of these are things where, you know, Donald Trump by could have made a plea deal.
and had all of these over again already with some some sort of minor whatever fines.
|
Ivan:
[59:04]
| Things you know probation maybe who knows something like that you know for most of them not all of them i don't not all of them.
|
Sam:
[59:13]
| Not all and you know they and they could have tried to do like the spiro agnew thing where like the condition of the plea deal was don't run for office again exactly.
|
Ivan:
[59:23]
| And And stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. They could have done a whole bunch of stuff, but he decided to push it.
And the one thing is that for everybody I've seen in these cases, you see the opposite is true.
Yes, you're right. They usually don't go to jail because almost all of them don't bleed out.
But the morons that go all the way to trial usually wind up in fucking jail.
|
Sam:
[59:45]
| Well, and also there's the whole escalation from a misdemeanor to a felony thing here.
Right. where it's attached to the theory of the case.
And this is one of the things that's sort of unique to this case that hasn't been tried much before is the way that they're trying to escalate it from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Like one of the possible outcomes in this trial is they find him guilty on the misdemeanor, but not the felony.
Yeah, the lesser included charge or whatever. Right, right, right.
And so that's possible, right? Right.
But, but yeah, he's all of the things like, this is the same thing.
Like people have talked about him behaving in court.
The second E. Jean Carroll trial, consensus seems to be like the amount that they held him in judgment for is much, much higher because of his behavior in court.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:44]
| Right?
|
Sam:
[1:00:44]
| Because he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut, right?
He instead basically proved to the jury in that case that.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:54]
| It was true. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:00:55]
| Everything was true. True. You, he acts like the asshole that he was described as like, you know, and so he makes things worse for himself all the time.
And, you know, one of the things that people are speculating about here is like, you know, at some point, if he has to like sit and hear people say bad things about him day to day for potentially like six weeks or something, you know, at some point, is he just going to lose control and do something harmful to himself?
I'm not saying harmful for himself, like he's going to bring out a knife and cut himself or something.
No, I'm just saying like, you know.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:43]
| Well, he may overspray his tan.
|
Sam:
[1:01:45]
| He'll do some sort of outburst where the judge has no choice but to reprimand him, where he looks bad in front of the jury, where he, you know, even if he doesn't like actually testify, he keeps saying he's going to testify. Of course, his lawyers are telling him not.
No, you do.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:05]
| Oh, I would love. Oh my God. This would be great.
If he testifies. Oh my God. Just, which is be awesome.
|
Sam:
[1:02:15]
| One of the things that's supposed to happen this week. I don't think it's happened yet.
It was supposed to happen, but I think it got pushed to Friday or maybe, I don't know.
Was this, I think they call it a Sandoval hearing. hearing, basically it's the prosecution has to, I think I saw that in writing, so I'm not sure if they did it in the courtroom yet, but the prosecution basically has to say, okay, if you do come on the stand, here's the kind of things you should expect in the cross-examination.
And basically it's all kinds of stuff about all of the things he's been found liable or guilty for in the past, which wouldn't necessarily be able to be brought into the trial otherwise, but if he testifies, potentially could be.
And, you know, so basically like him testifying in this would be incredibly dumb because the man can't tell the truth for the life of him.
He, he, he potentially will perjure himself.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:20]
| He probably will perjure himself. I understand. In two seconds.
|
Sam:
[1:03:26]
| And even if he doesn't, the way he comes off in these situations has not proven to be something that is helpful when facing a jury.
Like, the jury almost always comes out with a more negative opinion of him after they hear him speak than before.
You know, so, I don't know. And it looks like we're actually starting. On Monday.
Like, again, you know, you never know. Something could happen, but.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:59]
| Well, I mean, it's still got Friday. I mean, I don't know because, look, we lost a couple of. Listen, I know we've got.
|
Sam:
[1:04:04]
| We could lose more.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:06]
| We could lose a couple more. You know, so that will delay it.
But but they are definitely making progress to to get that.
I mean, we could quite possibly get the other five tomorrow and then and then go. So it's looking good.
|
Sam:
[1:04:20]
| It's it's looking good. I mean, you never know. No, like, you know, Trump could have a health issue over the weekend and get it delayed because of that.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:31]
| Oh, my gosh, that would be.
|
Sam:
[1:04:34]
| He might have bone spurs again.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:36]
| Look, I'm going to say, look, let me tell you something. For whomever it is, this situation is very.
|
Sam:
[1:04:44]
| Stressful.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:45]
| Stressful. I mean, to a point that it does cause to a number of people health issues. And I, I, I will never forget back in the mid nineties, there's somebody that I know, pretty well. That was on, by the way, he was in federal court, a trial for charges that are actually quite similar to what Trump was accused of.
He was accused of falsifying business records in order to obtain a loan. Okay.
And loans that were paid off. This is not this case. I know.
|
Sam:
[1:05:18]
| Right. Which by the way, just, just, just quick, just quick detour, just quick detour to say once Once again, like people call it the hush money trial.
People call it election interference, whatever. In the end, it's falsifying business records.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:33]
| Business records. That's right.
|
Sam:
[1:05:34]
| The election interference is why it is elevated to a felony, but it's falsifying business records is the actual charge.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:43]
| And let me be clear that this guy wound up.
He went better way. He was his appeal was handled by Alan Dershowitz. OK.
|
Sam:
[1:05:52]
| OK.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:52]
| Yeah. So this is not a guy that hired some cockamamie lawyers or whatever.
He had a first-rate defense in the trial.
During the trial, all of a sudden, he developed a serious health problem.
He wound up to the hospital. And look, I mean, he was found to have, thankfully, it was benign, a tumor in his brain.
|
Sam:
[1:06:19]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:20]
| It was pressing against his head. But this guy, listen, you talk about the pressure and distress.
Look, he's going to this trial.
It's very public in Puerto Rico because he was a pretty well-known person because he owned one of the major TV stations on the aisle.
And I remember when he got the tumor and all of a sudden the hospital, they had to perform brain surgery.
I mean, they had to perform brain surgery. The trial was was suspended, went back to trial and and he wound up losing.
And by the way, he was sentenced to several years in jail for something very similar to this.
And by the way, he could have pleaded. I actually told him, why the fuck don't you plead this thing?
But he decided. And that's the reason why I don't decide to go to fucking trial on this thing.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:12]
| I know that the prosecutors, because he was also politically connected, there was some politics involved.
I don't think that they wanted to give him a deal, but in the end, by the way, his appeal was successful, and 10 out of 12 charges got reduced, but still, he wound up spending a couple of years in fucking jail.
So that's why I'm saying, look, everybody's saying, oh, it's just documents or whatever.
Listen, bullshit. These prosecutions happen. People go to fucking jail for this.
This is not some bullshit you know accusation and and the big problem like i said before, it is he's going to trial but again like you mentioned about the health look and people under distress like my father when he got indicted wound up at the fucking hospital with some kind of fucking heart valve problem all of a sudden that all of a sudden just developed out of the fucking and blue okay i'm like what the fuck you know this is very very yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:08:14]
| No you're you're you're absolutely right i mean i i joked i joked about trump getting his bone spurs again but but the stress is real and like.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:23]
| The stress is real hard.
|
Sam:
[1:08:25]
| And it takes a toll on your body and if you've got it you know and trump's obviously not in the best shape in the world.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:31]
| He's not he's I mean, I see these, look, I see these like paintings that they make of him.
Some people that it looks like this athletics felt like Superman. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:08:45]
| Although I have seen a couple people point out and I'm, I don't know, I have not noticed this myself, but I haven't, I have seen several people point out though, that even though he's not in the best shape in the world compared to like a lot of folks, it seems like he actually is looking better than he did a couple of years ago.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:03]
| Because he's now president?
|
Sam:
[1:09:05]
| I don't know. Like, he's lost a little bit of weight. You know, I don't know.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:09]
| Well, you know, I'm sorry, but the losing of the weight might be the...
Okay, you guys may be taking this as the wrong thing, because usually with these people...
|
Sam:
[1:09:17]
| Oh, that's the stress.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:19]
| Yes! You know, then he's not eating, which that's not good.
|
Sam:
[1:09:24]
| Or maybe he's just on Ozempic or something.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:29]
| I mean, I would assume that he would... You know...
i would say how he would want to be on it but i also see how that if he was on it then how does he explain the weight loss given that he said he's six foot whatever anyways less than i do oh.
|
Sam:
[1:09:48]
| The same way he explains everything else he lies.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:50]
| Oh it's just you know then he's gonna be way what a hundred i i don't.
|
Sam:
[1:09:55]
| Know no he didn't lose any weight at all he's.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:58]
| Always didn't lose oh it's It's just a barrage.
|
Sam:
[1:10:00]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:01]
| You're just imagining it. No, this is, I've looked this, I've looked this way the whole time. Exactly. You guys just weren't looking close enough.
You know what? He will say that. Son of a motherfucking Jesus Christ.
And like so many people, fucking people just believe it.
I wish I had that superpower to a certain extent. No, I don't.
Because actually the thing is that that only works on morons.
That's what I'm noticing.
|
Sam:
[1:10:30]
| Yeah. Okay. So anything else about the trial?
The real things start next week, it looks like. Again, unless something happens.
But it looks like it's starting next week, maybe as early as Monday.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:45]
| I'm thinking we've got a trial going on next week, baby. We're ready to roll.
|
Sam:
[1:10:53]
| Yep. And yeah, we'll see. Just to put it out there again.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:59]
| By the way, another legal thing that's happening. What is the date?
On the 22nd, this little itty bitty thing.
|
Sam:
[1:11:06]
| Oh yeah, the Trump legal stuff. Go ahead. This is related to his bond.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:11]
| Sam, what's happened to his bond? I thought that all the people that you kept talking to said that, oh, yeah, it's a slam dunk.
He's got one hundred and seventy five million.
And I was telling you, man, you guys must be fucking deluded.
This son of a bitch always is lying about his money.
What the fuck makes you guys think that he's really coming up with one hundred and seventy five million? So, Sam, you know.
|
Sam:
[1:11:37]
| Here's where here's where we are at the moment.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:40]
| Where are we?
|
Sam:
[1:11:41]
| And we did talk a little bit about this two weeks ago. There were a lot of questions raised about the bond that he submitted.
So the judge gave until, what was it, this Monday?
|
Ivan:
[1:11:53]
| Yeah, the 22nd. Well, no, he gave it until past Monday to submit information.
|
Sam:
[1:11:58]
| Right, right. So he gave him until past Monday, whatever Monday was.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:04]
| Whatever it was.
|
Sam:
[1:12:04]
| The 10th, 11th, I don't know. Looking at the calendar.
Fuck, I am. The 15th. The 15th. yeah 15 he gave it gave him the fifth till the 15th the 10th is like nine days ago not what and whatever whatever he gave him gave him till the 15th to submit all the documentation on why this bond is actually good and by the way it was the bond company having to submit all this stuff not just the trump people they met the deadline by like an hour or two they submitted it at the very last minute two.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:33]
| Hours it was like something a little bit past 10 o'clock.
|
Sam:
[1:12:36]
| Yeah and And then the judge gave the prosecution until...
Friday, tomorrow, as we're recording this, the 19th, to come back with why they think what was produced is inadequate.
And then they are having a hearing Monday where the judge, this is Judge Erdogan, I believe, will determine whether or not this bond is okay.
And so tell us some of the deficiencies on this bond, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:08]
| Well, why don't we start with one of the primary ones, Which is that Trump supposedly pledged collateral in the amount of $175 million in apparently bonds that were deposited at Charles Schwab and Company.
And the contract stated that they said that they had verified that that amount was in the account back several weeks ago, not on the day of the filing of the documents.
So the money could have changed, number one. And the second thing is that the money wasn't pledged. It wasn't.
|
Sam:
[1:13:45]
| It's not locked up in any way.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:47]
| It's not locked up in any way. They looked at the amount and the contract basically said, oh, we can take control of this account with two business days notice, which is ridiculous.
It basically means that that money is not locked up in any way.
it's not pledged because one of the things that you could do is like you could set this in an account where it it's in a it's in trust okay the i mean that it's it's locked there's damn it i know the word in spanish and i i'm gonna have to translate it into english because for whatever the hell damn reason the only word that i know for this is in spanish so there is a term uh okay here we go okay, Okay, it is pledged specifically. It's, you know, so yeah.
So the word is that this amount was pledged. Okay, so if it's pledged in that way, it can't be touched.
Okay, it's already locked up. It's committed, but it's not in this case.
The Flipsy contract just says that they could maybe go over there and take the money, but nothing is stopping Donald from taking that money out of that account. Okay, number one.
|
Sam:
[1:14:59]
| It may already not be there.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:01]
| May already not be there for all we know at this point.
You know, they can demand that he deposit the money. But the second thing is that the bond company they submitted, you know, showed that they only they had equity that was less than the value of the bond itself.
So they could talk about all the assets they have. Who gives a shit about the assets? OK, all right.
What about you've got liabilities? OK, the equity is what counts.
OK, and the company doesn't have that equity. The companies that are behind it, okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:31]
| Don't guarantee, they aren't part of the asset base of that company.
And it's very typical for insurance companies.
If you look at how insurance is structured in the US, when you look at Allstate, Allstate doesn't have just one insurer.
They have insurers that go into state, into state, and all of those have individual assets, and they are licensed with the state in order to issue insurance. you know, insurance.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:57]
| And if they exceed the equity that is of that, of the insurance in that state, they could take the choice to just say, fuck it.
You know, yeah, all state Florida goes bankrupt, but, but it's not going to take down the rest of the all state company.
That is why you have to have those resources in that state.
And they're trying to act like, I don't know, everybody else is a fucking moron because, oh, yeah, but the mother, you know, the you know, the parent company has, you know, whatever billion gets to flying fucks. That means nothing.
Those assets aren't pledged either against this. So so they don't have the equity.
The the the funds that Trump put up aren't really, you know, pledged against the bond.
So I don't know how on any godly earth.
Oh, and even the amount of equity that they have is, you know, not only is it not enough, but the requirement is that a bond cannot exceed 10% of the value of the equity they have.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:05]
| I mean, they're so short. I mean, he would have to put, you know, into the company like two plus below.
The guy would have to pledge half his wealth into that subsidiary based on the numbers that we know.
|
Sam:
[1:17:18]
| And the documents don't say he did that.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:21]
| No, and he did. Exactly. None of them show any of that shit.
So look, unless something, I mean, look, unless the judge is blind, I don't see how the hell this bond stands up.
I mean, basically, I'm almost, I'm like, is this just thing on Monday?
Say, well, you failed to meet. Game over. Bye. See you.
|
Sam:
[1:17:44]
| Well, I'll add on top of all those like actually meaningful things you mentioned, apparently also their technicalities as well, like the company's not registered in New York as a bond agent and stuff like that.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:55]
| Oh, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:17:56]
| Well, which is which is supposedly required, but could be waived.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:00]
| Yeah, that could be. Exactly. I mean, you know, those things, if they had the assets, it was just a matter, you know, that may you may get around that.
But but it's just you're not even meeting the bare minimum of any of the requirements for it.
at this point right so somebody was seeing that apparently for some reason like trump's plane is like stuck on a tarmac and in new york or something like right now today i'm like i'm wondering if like you know they're gonna put like one of those like little boots on it you know on monday just to you know keep.
|
Sam:
[1:18:30]
| Him from uh fleeing.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:31]
| Yeah basically that would be entertaining.
|
Sam:
[1:18:35]
| If if you actually attempted to like skip yeah no that yeah we'll see what happens to that and i guess that even Given there, the judge has options, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:18:45]
| I'm not sure what the options are. I think, look.
|
Sam:
[1:18:47]
| Well, no, I'm just saying the judge could, as an example, say, this does not meet the qualifications, but I'll give you another 10 days. You know, I.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:58]
| Guess it's possible. But I'm like, at this point, I'm like, come on, judge, give me a fucking break.
You gave him, you know, he had the option. When he appealed, he got it reduced.
you know he didn't he submitted something but you know he got 10 extra days even at the 10 days he still didn't submit the fucking thing you're gonna give him another fucking chance i'm like fuck this i mean who the hell gets this many chances houdini doesn't get this many fucking outs.
|
Sam:
[1:19:23]
| Just start grabbing the shit i know yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:28]
| I mean i don't see that.
|
Sam:
[1:19:31]
| Would be really amusing by the way to have that happening while he has to be sitting in court yeah like he's i.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:40]
| Mean that would be that would be the best because that would be.
|
Sam:
[1:19:44]
| He's having to sit it because we're showing.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:46]
| Yeah he's having okay.
|
Sam:
[1:19:49]
| He's having he's having to sit there listening to opening statements or some witness talking about how how scummy he is and how much of a liar he is and he's this and he's that and blah blah blah whatever whatever's going on and he can't move from there but meanwhile their trucks rolling up to his properties all over the place to confiscate one thing or another of course they'd probably they'd probably start with bank accounts they'd probably start with that schwab account right yeah schwab account yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:19]
| First fucking place i'd be grabbing money is like taking that damn account.
|
Sam:
[1:20:22]
| Yeah right away so anyway the the only other thing i wanted to say before we take a break and do our final segment on something else is I will just reiterate my prediction that this guy will never see a day in jail.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:38]
| Oh no, that's my.
|
Sam:
[1:20:39]
| You'll never see it. Yeah. Not pain. He will never see a day in jail.
Like all he may be convicted of this. He may be convicted of the other things.
Uh, he may even be sentenced to jail, but there will be so much, there will be appeals.
There will be this, there will be that there will be judges being like, Like we can't put the president in an actual jail.
Maybe like the worst I can see happening is like home confinement under the supervision of the secret service or something.
Like I don't actually see him like going to Rikers or something.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:13]
| I mean, I don't know. Maybe he flees to Moscow for all we know.
|
Sam:
[1:21:17]
| Maybe again, the fleeing scenario would be incredibly fun to watch as well, but I'm not predicting it.
But, you know, I mean.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:27]
| That that would be fun. What other fun scenarios do we have?
I mean, you know, he flees to Moscow.
I mean, he has a fucking heart attack.
I mean, I do think that that is one thing.
okay not being because i don't like wishing death on people but this guy makes me is he oh i am honestly i don't think i recall really wanting somebody else dead other than this guy, i it's that's how much i despise this guy yeah i guess that's one reason i'm not gonna get impaneled but anyway yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:22:08]
| Yeah we just play that you know i i was imagining myself in the jury selection scenario.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:13]
| And i'm like okay.
|
Sam:
[1:22:15]
| So yeah yeah i think i could be fair but hey i have read like almost every.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:23]
| I have read almost.
|
Sam:
[1:22:25]
| Every page of every indictment i have followed the.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:30]
| Ins and and outs.
|
Sam:
[1:22:31]
| Of every single case, listening to hours and hours of cable news.
And I do a podcast where almost every week we've talked about it and talked about all of the reasons why he should be in jail and he should have been in jail for years.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:47]
| Oh, and my co-host wants him dead.
|
Sam:
[1:22:49]
| Not suggesting anybody caused that to happen. Anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:55]
| No, no. I just, you know, I'm just saying, you know, I don't know.
Why doesn't he just have a fricking heart attack like every other fucking fat asshole like him.
|
Sam:
[1:23:07]
| Oh, I don't, I actually, I actually don't want that.
I would prefer he lived through the process of getting convicted in all four of these cases, you know, because, because if he dies, they all end immediately, you know?
|
Ivan:
[1:23:23]
| So no, that's true. Now, one thing about all of this, of course, is that it, It is what you said about this, that even if he gets convicted, there's appeals.
|
Sam:
[1:23:33]
| He can stretch that out the rest of his life.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:35]
| A court is that, look, depending on how long. I mean, I still remember who the heck was it?
Oh, my God. The Enron guy, Ken Lay.
|
Sam:
[1:23:45]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:46]
| Ken Lay, he got, you know, trial and conviction. It took, let me see, his trial.
He had been convicted. It had been years before, but he had been doing appeals and other things.
You see, where the hell was he?
Trial. But he happened to die. Exactly.
He was indicted in like 04.
Okay? So think about this. So 04 indictment. He was scheduled to be sentenced.
sentenced, it was almost two plus years later, September 2006, okay? And then rescheduled to October 2006.
So think about this, two and a half years, okay?
And then he wound up dying of a heart attack right before sentencing, which by the way, vacated the whole thing. The conviction doesn't exist.
But look how long it took for this guy, almost three years.
|
Sam:
[1:24:46]
| And that's- Well, of course, Yvonne, what we're really going to see is he's going to be convicted of this.
He's going to be sentenced to house arrest, but then he's going to win the presidential election.
And so he'll be sentenced to house arrest in the White House for like portion of his presidency.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:04]
| That's an insane scenario. Anyway, by the way, you see, look what can lay.
Look, why can't this happen? The autopsy indicated that the height of a heart attack brought on by coronary artery disease.
And found evidence that he had suffered a previous heart attack. Look, I mean.
|
Sam:
[1:25:20]
| Okay. shall we move on yes, okay we're going to take a break and then one more newsy topic and then we'll wrap this thing up back and the newsy topic will be mine this time mine I tell you.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:36]
| Mine all mine yours anyway.
|
Sam:
[1:25:40]
| Exactly back after this.
|
Sam:
[1:26:33]
| Okay. So first of all, I'm just going to say one thing that is not going to be my topic, but I just figured we should note.
Last week on the show, when Yvonne wasn't here, we talked about the Iranian, you know, Israel attacked Iran's embassy and then Iran attacked Israel.
But like most of the stuff was stopped over the last couple hours.
And as we've been sitting here, apparently the Israeli retaliation on Iran is going on.
They're conflicting reports on how big it is, what is involved, what's not involved, what kind of damage there might be, et cetera.
So that is ongoing as we are recording.
Depending what happens there, we may have stuff to talk about next week.
I think the hope everybody has is this tit for tat sort of remains relatively mellow and dies out rather than being an escalatory cycle, but we shall see.
But no, that is not my topic. my topic is that once again well these things are tied up one is the other hot spot ukraine there's a ukraine aid package going through the the congress to try and get through but that is intrinsically tied up to once again we have a potential drama on speaker johnson and what might happen to him and so i figured we should talk about that a little bit.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:57]
| So what's happening to dear old johnson boy i i mean one thing that happened was i i shared the video clip you saw it.
|
Sam:
[1:28:08]
| Yep i.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:09]
| Mean i was i wasn't just me but the person who posted we're all like stunned, By the fact that Mike Johnson went on and basically said, I've seen all the intelligence of what the hell is going on in Ukraine.
I, you know, I am not going to enable Putin.
I'm paraphrasing. And I'm going to put this up to a vote because this needs to be done.
|
Sam:
[1:28:40]
| Bottom line. This is interesting because as recently as a month or two ago, he was actually one of the Republicans who explicitly was saying there should be no more aid to Ukraine.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:52]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:28:52]
| So he's changed his mind. It's not just, I disagree with this, but I feel like we should allow a vote.
It's actually, he's saying that he thinks this is something that should happen.
Now, I don't know what his vote will be in the end, but look, here's fundamentally the TikTok of what's been going on here.
A couple months back, the Senate passed an aid package, a foreign aid package that included Ukraine, it included Israel, it included Taiwan, it included a few other countries across the world.
It was the whole thing.
And it passed with 60 plus votes in the US Senate.
So a large majority, it was almost all the Democrats plus a bunch of Republicans.
And so that's been sitting there waiting for the House to do something with it. And Johnson has been delaying and delaying and delaying because he knows this is one of the bright lines that the people who don't like him have.
Specifically, there is a group of Republicans who are 100% at this point, no more aid to Ukraine, period, end of story.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:10]
| Can I ask you a question about this group? what we you recently we saw a story circulating about putin paying off politicians in certain countries speculated about what the deal is in the u.s do we think that some of these guys are are taking money from putin.
|
Sam:
[1:30:34]
| Not directly. I think that, I think it's, it's very similar to the Trump, Russia, Russia, Russia situation that I went through where it's more that they're useful idiots.
Intermediate, they may be taking money from someone, but they're intermediates and they, they, there's laundering going on so that, you know, it's not, it's somewhat deniable where it really comes from.
And maybe there's a Russian source, maybe there's not.
I mean, we remember Butina and her going around with the NRA and all kinds of other folks.
And there was money happening there, too.
But it wasn't, you know, there's always sort of layers of deniability and question and blah, blah, blah.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:17]
| Oh, no, no, no. But but even with I mean, but but we think that there's definitely some money somehow through the layers of liability has to be reaching some of the some of these people.
|
Sam:
[1:31:30]
| Probably. I don't know that it's provable, though.
But I think for the most part, if you ask, I would be surprised if there was a chargeable espionage case where you could take one of these Congress people and say, you are actually acting as a foreign agent in an illegal way.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:55]
| Well, I mean, it's not like we haven't indicted some, you know, congressmen before.
|
Sam:
[1:32:01]
| Well, well, Menendez, Democrat, one of the one one of his charges is specifically a right.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:10]
| That's what I'm saying. Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:32:12]
| Being being a paid agent for Turkey.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:14]
| Yes. Foreign, you know, foreign money for for.
|
Sam:
[1:32:18]
| Yeah, I think it was Turkey. I think it was Turkey.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:21]
| And I think it's Turkey or Qatar or one or two. But yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. It was Turkey.
|
Sam:
[1:32:27]
| But, you know, so I don't know. But I think regardless of that, I think there's clearly useful idiot stuff going on.
I mean, even some Republican congresspeople in the last few weeks have talked about how some of their members are just unashamedly repeating Russian talking points, you know? Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:52]
| Yes. repeating completely.
|
Sam:
[1:32:53]
| Debunked stories about like there was something going around about zolinski having all kinds of houses throughout europe and a yacht and all this kind of stuff that he was taking the us aid and using it to buy this stuff and.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:07]
| The one guy we know that has a yacht is fucking puke okay all right i mean get the fuck out of here okay but we know which word a yacht is we know where the hell the yacht is arrested okay i mean it is one of the most bizarre things with this yacht you know one of the craziest things about about the yacht you're doing work on the yacht he's getting work he was getting he was getting like the he was getting it like expanded like lengthened okay nice and i'm like the yacht has been literally sitting there since the war started.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:45]
| In this dry dock with people who multiple people have verified are FSB people on board where every window is covered up like in a way that you've never seen a yacht happen at a dock.
OK, it is the most bizarre fucking thing ever.
This thing with Putin's yacht.
OK, it's, you know, you know, you talked about the liability of shoving.
company or a shell company or a shell company shell company it is arrested there okay because everybody believes that it points straight back to him but it's not season it's not sold and.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:28]
| It's just one of the weird things but but yeah but the one thing is it's preposterous to think that we wouldn't find out as the links he has this yacht because there there is you know there is this one guy specifically that i follow he's got every single one of these russian yachts like tagged track we know who what where when i mean you know how how some that the ones that are aren't arrested where the hell they are you know how they navigate they intentionally go and turn off so like aircraft have adsb for tracking you know ships have a similar system okay in order to be able to track them they will turn off the trackers regularly in order to pass from one place from another and avoid surveillance and above seizure and so forth and so on.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:16]
| So we know where the fuck they are. And so this whole thing about, you know, Zelensky's fucking yachts, it's just preposterous because it just, there's no, not a shred of evidence to show one bit of this.
|
Sam:
[1:35:27]
| No, there isn't. Although, you know, what you're saying about Putin's yacht, like if they could, could just seize it, add some missiles and guns to it and give it to the Ukrainians, that would work out too.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:38]
| Well, one of the things that we have been discussing that hasn't been done yet with assets seized because there has been...
|
Sam:
[1:35:44]
| I know, is seize the... Yes. Use the seized assets to fund the Ukrainians. Correct.
As a form of reparations and...
|
Ivan:
[1:35:53]
| I 100% support that. I'm like, yeah. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:35:58]
| There have been a number of people pushing for it, but it's one thing that the Biden administration themselves has said they're exploring it, but hasn't really pushed it hard.
There are a number of other people who are trying to push this, but it hasn't really gone there yet.
Anyway, back to what we were talking about. The Senate passed the deal.
Johnson has been holding off on it because he knows that this is the bright line for a bunch of his people, specifically Marjorie Taylor Greene.
One of the things she said would cause her to instantly drop her, you know, motion to vacate the chair or whatever it's called would be Ukraine funding.
|
Sam:
[1:36:36]
| So what Johnson's strategy that he announced earlier this week was that he is splitting up the aid into basically each country gets their own bill.
It's split it into four. So there's, so it's, it's, it's not actually every country, but it's like, here's the one for Ukraine. Here's the one for Israel.
Here's the one for Taiwan. And here's the Tik TOK bill or something like that.
The banning Tik TOK thing is in there too, somewhere.
But anyway, he wants to give each of these a separate vote because for one thing, each of them has different constituencies.
So for instance, on the Israel one, you'll get more Republicans, But you'll actually have a few Democrats dropping off who don't want to support Israel right now because of what's going on in Gaza.
But all of these have more than 50%, but it's a different group of people who puts it over 50%.
|
Sam:
[1:37:32]
| The Ukrainian one is going to have almost all the Democrats, plus...
|
Sam:
[1:37:36]
| Possibly most of the Republicans, maybe around 50% of the Republicans.
It's unclear exactly, et cetera.
But he wants to run them through separately to try to provide some...
Because one of the objections some of the Republicans had was having them bundled all together because they're like, we want to give the aid to Israel, but we don't want to give it to Ukraine.
This gives them an opportunity to do that kind of...
|
Ivan:
[1:38:01]
| To vote separately so they They could have their symbolic votes.
|
Sam:
[1:38:05]
| Yes, exactly. Even if they all pass in the end.
But then they're doing some sort of, what he wants to do is some sort of parliamentary trick, whatever, that even though they're voted on separately, they'll be recombined when they're sent back to the Senate again.
It'll be slightly different from the Senate. So the Senate will have to vote again. So hopefully they don't screw anything up because there will potentially be amendment possibilities, although most of them are expected to fail.
But, you know, basically the hardliners on the Republican side say that's not enough for us.
You're still letting it happen and we don't want you to let it happen.
And so they're now, Marjorie Taylor Greene was joined by one other person who said for sure that he's going to vote for the motion to recommit if this happens.
And there keep being reports that there are more than two, but without their names attached, at least yet.
yet so what it looks like is if johnson actually lets this happen then we're gonna have the motion to recommit we're gonna have speaker drama again but what's different this time and we have talked about this on the show again but it's just getting closer to the end we now have.
|
Sam:
[1:39:27]
| At least a handful of Democrats who've said that if Johnson actually delivers these foreign aid bills, specifically the Ukraine one, then they will save him, that they will vote to save Johnson.
You don't need all the Democrats to do this.
You just need a handful to basically... You only need the one member to say, we're going to have the vote to recommit, but then you need a majority you know, in order to oust the guy and all you need.
And if we only have two or three or four Republicans who this time around actually want to get rid of Johnson, because most Republicans at this point are like, we may not like the guy, but we don't want to go through that mess again.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:12]
| Right, right, right, right.
|
Sam:
[1:40:13]
| You know, so it is what it is.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:17]
| They're, they're, they're just, you know, look, this, you know, exactly. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:40:21]
| So some of them are like, you know, he, he clearly they're like, If the Republicans retain the House in the elections this time, they're like, we're not going to vote Johnson in again as Speaker next time.
But we don't want to kick him out right now. This has been a disaster for us. We look like idiots.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:38]
| Because we already look like idiots, and we just don't want to come poundy-ish.
|
Sam:
[1:40:44]
| Yes.
So if you only have a very small number of Republicans that are voting for this, you only need a few Democrats.
They don't even have to vote for Johnson. they just have to not vote because it's a majority of those voting, not a majority of the house as a whole.
So you just need to have a few Democrats sit on their hands and not vote and Johnson stays.
|
Sam:
[1:41:07]
| And, but that, if that, if it plays out that way, Johnson's in a, I mean, he's already, the majority is down to one as of like Saturday, the majority is down to one.
It's unworkable as it is if he's only there because of democratic votes or non-votes his ability to do anything is gone now well we can't assume listen we're assuming nothing's going to happen like this if this aid package goes through this is the last thing that's going to happen before next year anyway yeah you know it's about it so it kind of doesn't matter absent some sort of emergency situation right you know and so i don't know we'll see it'll be amusing or or, And Johnson's little, oh, and I should mention, this is one other thing.
In order to even do this, the way that's being talked about, the three bills, the recombining and the blah, blah, blah, there has to be a procedural vote on the rules that govern this whole debate.
Normally in the U.S. House of Representatives, procedural rules are party line votes where whichever party is in charge.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:23]
| They're the ones that vote under rules.
|
Sam:
[1:42:25]
| The rules process is used to define the agenda.
It's used to define how the debate on each item will work or not work, et cetera. And so usually it's pure party line.
Johnson does not have the votes to set this up in the rules without Democrats as well.
So, so you need a handful of Democrats going along with the rules package, which normally does not happen in order to even make this happen.
And, and so some, some Democrats, the, the, the Democrats as a whole have not, did I, did I, yeah, I'm stuttering The Democrats.
The Democrats. Okay, fine.
Anyway, the Democrats as a whole from the leadership position have not said that they will support Johnson's rule.
However, this is once again a scenario where we expect there'll be a handful of Democrats who would make the vote with leadership's permission to pass the rule, let this happen. But this could all still fall apart.
You know, like, you know, it looks like this may happen.
And if it does happen, it sounds like it's going to happen over the weekend sometime.
But, you know, so, you know, scenario one, this happens.
Then Marjorie Taylor Greene pulls the trigger on Johnson.
And then we have the Democrats save him.
Scenario two, the whole thing falls apart. And.
|
Sam:
[1:43:53]
| We don't get the Ukraine bill, but Marjorie Taylor Greene pulls the trigger anyway because he dared to try to do this.
And then the Democrats have no reason to support him in that case because he didn't actually deliver the Ukraine aid.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:07]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:44:07]
| And then we get drama.
Yeah, just fun, fun stuff happening like that. There are other options, too.
Those are the two big ones, but there are other ways it could play out.
There's all kinds of chaos at play here because it's just completely dysfunctional on the Republican side right now.
They're very highly divided amongst themselves, and they have a one-seat majority.
You put those two things together, you can't do anything, and you just look stupid.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:39]
| I mean, they've been very good at that. How did that Mallorca's impeachment go?
|
Sam:
[1:44:44]
| Oh, yeah. Speaking of Republicans looking stupid.
|
Ivan:
[1:44:48]
| How'd that go?
|
Sam:
[1:44:48]
| Well, it got sent over to the Senate and the Senate voted to dismiss it. And boom, done.
There was no actual trial where they brought out witnesses and all this kind of stuff.
Basically, the determination was, they called it unconstitutional.
They said that this doesn't even remotely, the charges don't rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, so we're done.
Like, so it's, even if everything here was true, it's not a high crime. And Mr. Meter, Mr.
Meter, Mr. Meter, Mr.
Meter, Mr. Meter, Mr. Meter.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:24]
| I'm going to get a t-shirt that says that Mr.
|
Sam:
[1:45:26]
| Meter with a little nice little cartoon drawing of like a meat, like, like the kind of electrical meters on the side of the house.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:33]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:45:34]
| Like a cartoon version of it. Yeah. That sounds good. That sounds good. Anyway, uh, Anyway, so, yeah, and I actually, like, I have mixed feelings about that.
Like, I kind of feel like the expectation is that you have the trial and then say not guilty.
But I think the distinction here was like, look, even if the charges were all true, it's still not something worthy of an impeachment trial. We're done. Dismissed.
but you know and of course this whole process is political anyway like we're we're it we're reaching a situation where we kind of expect that they're gonna you know we we had very few impeachments for a long long time now we're having them like every year you know we're just gonna keep having impeachments i mean i.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:26]
| I think that the whole thing to me was like look just just drop the pretense i mean it's bullshit i mean let's just not even entertain it i mean what's What's the point?
It's just, it's not serious. I mean.
|
Sam:
[1:46:38]
| Well, and in this case too, it's also sort of the consolation prize.
The Republicans wanted to impeach Biden, but they kept coming up dry.
They're like, well, maybe we can still impeach Mayorkas, you know, for something.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:52]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:46:52]
| And basically the something is that they said was he's not properly.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:57]
| He hasn't done a good job.
|
Sam:
[1:46:58]
| He hasn't properly enforced the border or something. And I think there was specifically a charge that he lied to Congress because at one point he said the border was under control.
And they're like, that was a lie. You know, so...
|
Ivan:
[1:47:15]
| I mean, I, I just, it's one of those things where the situation with the border as it stands that the Republicans seem to, well, the Republicans see why, why am I even saying this? We know what it is.
The moment that Trump lost, the border was out of control.
The day before it was, it was like, oh, it was the perfect, the moment Biden arrived, it was all open, open borders. Matter of fact, he was like putting them on planes and shipping them in.
|
Sam:
[1:47:48]
| It's a remarkable coincidence that the economy turned around exactly the same day.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:52]
| Yes, according to, yes, absolutely. That same day. I mean, the borders got open, the economy collapsed.
Apparently, you know, we're all bankrupt.
Everybody is doing terrible. I mean, we want things back as they were four years ago.
Let's see what time, April 19th, 2020. How were things going in April 19th, 2020, Sam?
|
Sam:
[1:48:17]
| People were kind of upset.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:20]
| Ah.
|
Sam:
[1:48:21]
| Just a tad.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:22]
| Yeah. I don't think they were going too well, were they?
|
Sam:
[1:48:28]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:30]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:48:31]
| Are you better off than you were four years ago?
|
Ivan:
[1:48:34]
| Fuck yeah. Very much so.
|
Sam:
[1:48:37]
| So apparently, though, a lot of folks, when asked that question, don't think they're better off than they were four years ago.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:46]
| Even though by every objective measure, the reality is that people are better and just about. And, you know.
The median American, because I keep getting harping on people that the average is not a good number, especially in an economy that has such inequality right now.
But the median American has seen a lot of things that are better, even in the face of a lot of challenging issues that have happened over that time, with inflation and wars and other things and so forth.
|
Sam:
[1:49:27]
| But as we all know, it's people's impressions that end up mattering, not the objective truth.
That's correct. One of the things that happens in these polls, like if you separate out the question and say, are you better or worse off?
|
Ivan:
[1:49:42]
| Oh, like 65% of the people say yes, they're better off. 70%. It's a crazy descent.
|
Sam:
[1:49:48]
| But if you ask, is the country better off or even is your state better off? The answer is no.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:54]
| It's one of the most incongruous. But, you see, it's different, like, you know, go back to the time, it's the economy, stupid, right?
|
Sam:
[1:50:05]
| Yep. James Carville.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:07]
| Well, the economy, that was like, that was James Carville, that was in the Clinton-Bush election, 1992.
The reality is that the country was coming out of, was still coming out of a recession, okay?
OK, there have been massive bank failures, layoffs in the defense industry, and people were not better off.
OK, now the economy is recovering, but it was not recovered.
OK, at that point. So the reality is that people really, you know, were voting with their pocketbooks primarily, because even though H.W.
Bush did a whole bunch of things foreign policy wise that were good and for conservatives did some good things, you know, the people that are GOP, the economy was the major thing and whatever.
And they voted with their pocketbook, and that was really their pocketbook.
This divergence between people's politics and what is really happening with their pocketbook is something that has really exacerbated.
In the last 20, 30 years. And it wasn't as, as pronounced.
It's why Jimmy Carter wound up losing election in fricking 1980. I mean, inflation was.
|
Sam:
[1:51:35]
| That was a lot. Yeah. That was a big part of it, but there was other, the hostage thing had a big part. Yeah. There were no other things going on.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:41]
| I mean, well, the, the, the hostage, well, well, he fucked up.
Well, he fucked up the foreign policy part with the hostages, the hostage thing, whatever. But look, inflation, interest rates, listen, interest rates back then, people are complaining about interest rates right now being 7% and 8%.
These were all double-digit interest rates for anything back then, okay?
The mortgage was like something in 1980, if I remember.
It was in the high teens. It was 15%, 16%, 17%, 18%, okay?
It was nuts. And so, yeah, people were like really, really struggling and layoffs in big industries.
I mean, wolf and steel and autos.
I mean, it was, you know, that was, you know, bad.
OK, but, you know, so they voted with our pocketbook in 1984.
It was better, you know, 19, you know, 1988.
They oh, yeah, you know, Bush is going to continue Reagan.
gonna do that 92 they voted the other way and it was really like after that where you know it started diverging you know from that significantly and you wound up with 2000 election where, family values i think it was thousand what was uh no that was thousand point not thousand no the compassionate conservatism thousand.
|
Sam:
[1:53:10]
| Points of light that.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:12]
| Was hw oh no compassionate Compassionate conservatism. That was what, that was what, that was the, that was the pitch line. Compassionate conservatism.
|
Sam:
[1:53:19]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:20]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:53:22]
| That worked out great.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:23]
| Yeah, it worked out awesome.
|
Sam:
[1:53:25]
| Okay. I think we're done.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:28]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:53:30]
| Okay, the usual stuff at the end. Go to curmudgeons-corner.com.
You'll find our archives.
The transcripts are still formatted weird. I'll fix it someday. Maybe. Someday.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:43]
| Someday.
|
Sam:
[1:53:43]
| You'll also find... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You'll find... It messes up the formatting of the whole page, too, by the way.
Not just the... Anyway. way but you don't care um also there are all of our all the ways to contact us facebook email, mastodon all that kind of stuff and of course a link to our patreon where you can give us money, help out our economic situation and if you contribute at various levels we'll give we'll mention you on the show we'll ring a bell we'll send you a postcard we'll send you a mug etc etc cetera, et cetera.
And at $2 a month or more, or if you just ask, we will invite you to our curmudgeons corner slack where Yvonne and I and some other listeners are hanging out throughout the week, sharing links, chatting, all kinds of stuff. It's lots of fun.
We would love to have more of you on there. So Yvonne, what's the story of the week from the curmudgeons corner slack?
|
Ivan:
[1:54:39]
| That's the story of the week. I have been looking, so hold on one second.
and let's see well prepared as usual i'm usually more prepared to this for this today i i was struggling a little bit uh let's see uh we're talking a lot of serious stuff, on here okay so i guess you know it's it's not comical but this is one and this actually goes into my average thing new apple watch data shows that the average person takes 334 days to walk run a marathon but once again it went into the average okay it's all and also.
|
Sam:
[1:55:27]
| By the way if you read the article it's of of walking where they have declared they're doing like a walking or running workout it's not it's not it's not counting like when you're just walking up.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:40]
| The regular steps regular steps yeah yeah no no i i get that but i but so.
|
Sam:
[1:55:47]
| It's even it's slightly shorter if you include the other stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:50]
| Right but.
|
Sam:
[1:55:51]
| That's not the same.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:52]
| It's like.
|
Sam:
[1:55:52]
| When you're when you're walking for a workout it's a little bit different than like when you're walking to the kitchen for a snack.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:59]
| Well but but the but the reality is that the difference between the main person takes 335 days yeah but the median only takes 90 okay okay so you know that's why it's such a big difference between you know mean and median why i get so really annoyed you know when people like you know use one you know they they they use mean so frequently when it's really in so much data it's like really bullshit people.
|
Sam:
[1:56:26]
| Just like the average person who did not pay attention to math class, thinks when you say average like 50 of the people are above that 50 of the last it's in the middle no no no that's not what an average is that is what a mean is yes i mean sorry that no that is what a median median is that is what a median is the average or mean is way shifted by outliers Right.
You know, if you've got, you know, the example people often give is, you know, if you if you put me and Bill Gates in a room, our average wealth is billions.
Yes. You know, that's right. But that doesn't necessarily tell you anything.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:23]
| You know, and don't tell you much. No, no, not really. No, no.
Would be nice if it did, but it doesn't.
You know, so if you could just, you know, absorb some of that median mean part, but, but the one thing is that look, bottom line about this, just a lot of people are lazy because, you know, and, and.
|
Sam:
[1:57:42]
| And in response to this, I shared my steps graph of all steps, not just workout steps.
And it is pitifully low. And I am well aware of this.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:52]
| Well, you need to do better. Okay, I was the median person takes 90 days to travel one marathon.
My average is about 20 days, something like 20 some odd days. It's less than a month.
|
Sam:
[1:58:07]
| There you go.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:08]
| Usually from the.
You need to move, Sam.
|
Sam:
[1:58:13]
| I need to move?
|
Ivan:
[1:58:15]
| Yeah, I mean, like, physically. Not move from one house to another.
I mean, physically move.
|
Sam:
[1:58:20]
| I can't, like...
|
Ivan:
[1:58:21]
| Not in a car.
|
Sam:
[1:58:22]
| Not in a car?
|
Ivan:
[1:58:24]
| Not in a car. No, no, not in a car. Okay, let me clarify.
|
Sam:
[1:58:28]
| Segway?
|
Ivan:
[1:58:29]
| No, no, no. Those kill people easily, too. No, no.
I can see... You see, you and a Segway, I, you know... Look, if the founder of the damn thing got killed, you know fucking around with it i'm i'm very afraid and and by.
|
Sam:
[1:58:44]
| The way just like.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:45]
| Of course.
|
Sam:
[1:58:46]
| The segue is like ancient obsolete technology at this point now there's all kinds of the little hoverboards the little.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:52]
| Tuna wheel.
|
Sam:
[1:58:53]
| Things there's all kinds of other things that are based on that technology i.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:58]
| See so many people on those like e-bikes now e-bikes are really popular right now yeah the e-bikes are just all over the place including like.
|
Sam:
[1:59:06]
| Cargo e-bikes that people use used to go to the grocery store and stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:09]
| Yeah have like a nice little basket.
|
Sam:
[1:59:11]
| In the back and or front or whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:13]
| The e-bikes the little e-scooter you know i see ones that are you know the little like stand-up ones yeah the little things yeah there's all yeah now of.
|
Sam:
[1:59:22]
| Course if you're after the exercise thing.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:25]
| That none of that helps you.
|
Sam:
[1:59:27]
| Know okay the the electric.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:29]
| If you have to charge the battery on the e-bike on a regular basis you know you need to you need to cycle long enough to charge the battery on the e-bike. How's that?
|
Sam:
[1:59:38]
| Ah, there you go. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:40]
| That's, that's one way to get some exercise.
|
Sam:
[1:59:44]
| Yeah. I don't know. I, it, it, everything takes time. I don't like things. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:49]
| Yes, it does.
|
Sam:
[1:59:50]
| Everything takes, everything takes time.
shame things should be instant.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:55]
| Instant coffee instant but even instant coffee isn't really instant if you think about it.
|
Sam:
[2:00:01]
| Isn't there a device that'll let me exercise while i sleep or something.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:05]
| You know that would be i've heard listen they are i have heard that there is i.
|
Sam:
[2:00:10]
| Know you can get the little things that like the little things that mess with your muscles and stuff.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:15]
| No no no no no no no no no no no no better than that but no no no no i'm talking that that i that i've heard that they're i mean you know this has been talked for a long time people want to like be able to take a pill right that basically is like you exercised okay believe me there are people trying to work on that oh.
|
Sam:
[2:00:37]
| Of course of course like duh i would take that pill.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:41]
| I mean yeah i mean just take a pill in the morning and it's like you you you just pounded like you know an An hour workout.
Oh, yeah. Not available yet.
|
Sam:
[2:00:51]
| Not available quite yet.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:53]
| No.
|
Sam:
[2:00:54]
| Soon. Soon. Okay. We are done here, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:58]
| Yeah, we're done.
|
Sam:
[2:00:59]
| Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us for yet another Curmudgeon's Corner.
Stay safe. Have a good week. And we'll talk to you next time.
There'll be Trump trial stuff. Maybe. Probably.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:09]
| Maybe.
|
Sam:
[2:01:09]
| Hopefully.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:10]
| Maybe.
|
Sam:
[2:01:10]
| Like an actual, like, real stuff happening. happening unfortunately not televised no audio whatever but it's still happening there you go we'll.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:19]
| Get the sketch artist painting him asleep again.
|
Sam:
[2:01:21]
| There have been a couple good sketches that have come out of this thing so yeah yeah anyway we are done see you next time goodbye bye, Okay, that's it. I'm hitting stop.
|
|
|
