Automated Transcript
Sam:
[0:04]
| Okay shall shall we start yeah okay my notes up blah blah blah switch this to live here we go, Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, February 8th, 2025. It's just after 18 UTC as we're starting to record. I'm Sam Menter, Yvonne Boas here again. Hello, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[0:51]
| Hi.
|
Sam:
[0:52]
| You seem enthused. Did you have a great birthday?
|
Ivan:
[0:55]
| The birthday was very good. it the only you know there was here's one thing that happened okay so um my friend that that you know mireya okay okay yes she she did at the last minute it wasn't totally a surprise because i had to go pick her up but she said i organized this din i was i was putting together a dinner, And I had told her about it. I'm like, well, it would be great if you could come. And then also she surprised me. I said, well, I got a ticket. I'm coming. Let's go. So she flew down on, dinner was on Saturday night. She flew down Saturday afternoon so we could go to dinner and flew back Sunday to go home just so she could come to my birthday dinner. Okay. So she did do that, which is really awesome. Okay. All right. We had a great time. the one thing that wasn't awesome, is that Manu had been sick the previous couple of days and Manu had wanted to go to the restaurant and we got to the restaurant you know, dressed him up and he went to the restaurant he kind of like he soldiered to get to the restaurant then got there and was like oh my god, I feel terrible I need to go home, and Juan said look, You've got your family here, your friends that came. I'll just take them home. I'll take an Uber and I'll take them back home. So that sucked.
|
Ivan:
[2:23]
| Okay. So that was, you know, but it was still, we still had a really good time, but Manu couldn't come. Now, Manu did insist that, well, okay, fine. So I could be there at the restaurant that day. So then we need to go. We need to go later. We need to go back. so i'm not sure if we're gonna go today i don't think no we're not gonna go today because we're gonna go see dog man the dog man yes what's dog man dog man is a series of books and uh that is police officer that had a dog and they were in some kind of like accident explosion and so all of a sudden they decided that the way to save them was to fuse the guy's head to the dog or the dog's head to the guy something along those lines and so it became dog man so.
|
Sam:
[3:16]
| You said it's a series of books i see it's.
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Ivan:
[3:18]
| Yeah there's a series of books and well no it's the first movie that i know of about dog man but there's a series of dog man books so i'm all about this this guy who is a cop that's half man half dog.
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Sam:
[3:32]
| So wait are you seeing the movie or are you.
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Ivan:
[3:34]
| Going to like.
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Sam:
[3:35]
| Is the author coming.
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Ivan:
[3:36]
| He's been right no no no the movie came out it came out like about a week ago Mano has been reading all the books He really likes them, and the movie came out So we're going to go today to go see the movie.
|
Sam:
[3:47]
| Okay, I'm looking. There's a 2025 animated film.
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Ivan:
[3:52]
| Yeah.
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Sam:
[3:52]
| There was a 2018 Italian crime drama film by that name.
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Ivan:
[3:59]
| Okay, I don't think that's it.
|
Sam:
[4:01]
| And a 2023 French action drama film by that name.
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Ivan:
[4:07]
| I don't think that's it either.
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Sam:
[4:09]
| There was a children's musical by that name.
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Ivan:
[4:12]
| Well, that may be related to the book series.
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Sam:
[4:15]
| And there was a an album and a song by kings x by that title as well i.
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Ivan:
[4:23]
| Don't think that's that's it either.
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Sam:
[4:25]
| And the the i guess the book series is the graphic a comedic graphic novel novel series by dav pilkney yeah.
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Ivan:
[4:35]
| That that's that's that's the author yes.
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Sam:
[4:37]
| And then there was a character by gillian mark as well.
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Ivan:
[4:42]
| Not yeah it's dave pilkey that's the that's the author of the series.
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Sam:
[4:46]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[4:47]
| So dog, man.
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Sam:
[4:48]
| So I, I have added all three movies and the book series to my lists to potentially watch.
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Ivan:
[4:55]
| Yeah. We'll watch it sometime like in 20 80 something.
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Sam:
[4:59]
| Yeah.
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Ivan:
[5:00]
| Something, something, maybe something like that, perhaps.
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Sam:
[5:02]
| Yeah. So anyway, you know.
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Ivan:
[5:05]
| So, so yeah, so it was, it was really cool that I mean, I, I see, I, I mean, I talked to a regular, I, I, I had, I, we had met up at some event in New York, Thank you. not last year but the year before but i used to go more often to see somebody that i know from pittsburgh sam's met her at least once more from more and more times and i don't know so that just surprised me to come to my birthday and it was really really really really cool that we got cool got to hang out so so yeah you know even though it's like i mean the her she got here like the day before at like four o'clock and then her departure flight was at 7 a.m the next days i had to get it was yeah so yeah so anyway so that was birthday very.
|
Sam:
[5:51]
| Exciting anything else for our but first segment that you want to relate before before i i say something i.
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Ivan:
[5:58]
| Don't know yeah because that was just my question of what happened at my birthday yeah but first look i i it's Speaking of generalities, okay, all right, about the current state of our world, you know, this is a very exhausting time that we live in again. You know, we did this before with Trump before where it was just every, you know, with him, It's just, it is this entire circus of him doing shit to just that, that becomes, it does become impossible to ignore as much as you want to. Okay. And it's exhausting for everybody. Okay. And because that's what he wants. He wants the attention. That's why he's doing this more than anything else. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[6:56]
| And it's just, I mean, between my job and shit and whatever, I mean, this is fucking exhausting, man. I have decided, and I have set this, and I did this, and I'm keeping to this. I have to completely set time limits on how much scrolling I'm doing on whatever the fuck it is. Because, no, it's just draining. I have set a limit of 40 minutes a day.
|
Sam:
[7:28]
| Wow.
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Ivan:
[7:29]
| That's it.
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Sam:
[7:29]
| I can't imagine being that low.
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Ivan:
[7:32]
| Now, what I'm doing is, which is less stressful, still you get the news, but it is honestly using more Apple news.
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Sam:
[7:42]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[7:42]
| To reach more of what's going on, to know what's going on. So I've been devouring tons of those, and I've been actually noticing that I'm settings that I hadn't used before, and that I could subscribe to certain things and I could get certain things a certain way. Although, here's the one thing that I have as a feedback about this. I'll tell you what, the content in Apple News is fantastic, but they haven't really updated the application for you to tweak and customize those feeds more attuned to the taste. They've left it a little bit. They've added some features and done some stuff, but damn it, they should allow you to be able to customize that feed more. That is the drawback. But it really does provide you a place where I can get from a ton of sources just what the hell is going on without having to go on social media to do that and having to go to each individual website to get that information. Okay?
|
Sam:
[8:39]
| Mm-hmm.
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Ivan:
[8:41]
| And so, so yeah, so that, that, that's what I, I, you know, for.
|
Sam:
[8:45]
| For that kind of overviews thing, I still use Google news more like, and I don't use their app. I'll go to their website on desktop and go to the, for, therefore you page.
|
Ivan:
[8:56]
| But the thing is that, you know, you could use it on the phone. I could use it on the iPad. It lets me save articles. Man, they've got a lot of content. I didn't realize they've got like New York Magazine. They've got the Atlantic. They've got, you know, they have so much, so many. I didn't realize they added even more local newspapers that they buy. You can like, you know, pick like different newspapers from different places. There's just so much stuff on there. that it's just, you know, it's, it's available on all the devices. I don't have to just, I don't have to just do it on desktop. I find it that, you know, I've been using it a lot more and so I can find out what's going on, but without a lot of the, the, the, the commentary is really just, just worse than anything many times, you know? Yeah. I, I, I understand the mood. I don't need it. Repeat. one of the things that happen is it's just people keep banging on it over and over and i'm like okay yeah you know what you're just creating a spiral this is a depressive spiral i don't i don't need this shit i know it's bad i know it's fucking bad i don't i don't i don't need you know well i don't need the extra commentary on it i know it's bad i could tell all right so yeah so that's what I've come to, but it's still, I mean, it's just, you know, and I just, just mentioned one thing.
|
Sam:
[10:25]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[10:26]
| And I, but maybe reiterate this. Why was I so early on? caught on to the reality that Elon Musk is an asshole. How the fuck did everybody why was everybody so late to this, Sam? Because you've no, I've said this for it's not recent. It's been years. I mean, I'm pretty sure I looked it up like seven plus seven years at least that I've said this. That this guy is a massive asshole. Why did it take people so long to catch on?
|
Sam:
[11:00]
| I don't, I mean, he's certainly been a lot more vocal and out there in the last couple of years. I mean, he was always there if you were paying attention, but now he's just in your face constantly.
|
Ivan:
[11:12]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[11:13]
| I mean, I actually take that back slightly. In the last few weeks, his visibility is a little bit different. He's out there tweeting obnoxious stuff, but like I don't see like that.
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Ivan:
[11:33]
| Man, like that time he called that guy a pedo back in like the Thailand cave thing, for example.
|
Sam:
[11:40]
| No, I know.
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Ivan:
[11:40]
| The way that he, listen, Sam, why did people miss that? Anybody that talked and said anything negative about Tesla stock going back.
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Sam:
[11:50]
| Oh, no, I know.
|
Ivan:
[11:51]
| He had his whole gang of thugs like these clowns right now at government going and viciously attacking them, doxing them. making their lives miserable.
|
Sam:
[12:03]
| Oh, no, no, I know, I know. What I was going to say just now, though, was like his recent, like in the last few weeks, visibility is his Doge thing is doing all kinds of stuff, and I'm sure we'll talk about that later. And he's still doing obnoxious tweets that occasionally get surfaced. But what you don't see as much of, at least I haven't seen as much of lately, is like actual like him doing videos or public appearances or those guys. He seems to have quieted down on that front, which is, just i don't know interesting like it's a different kind of visibility and specifically in contrast to donald where yeah he he's also doing his truth social posts and all that but you know you do see the video of him i don't i don't know maybe it's just maybe it's an illusion based on my media consumption i don't know what.
|
Ivan:
[12:55]
| I'm saying is my my question is i'm going back to the question.
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Sam:
[12:58]
| The question why did it take.
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Ivan:
[12:59]
| So long for people to notice that this guy is a massive raving asshole.
|
Sam:
[13:06]
| I i think it's all about the level of visibility i mean lots of people did notice back when years ago but lots of people didn't care because those his antics were antics that if you weren't paying attention could easily you know pass under the radar and you didn't know he was doing those things you know i guess but now like what he is doing is front and center because it's national news yeah yeah you know and and so that that's i think a big part of the difference also i mean honestly he's gotten bigger too i mean you know well.
|
Ivan:
[13:48]
| He has gained weight.
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Sam:
[13:52]
| Okay but i was talking like you know he's richer than he was oh.
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Ivan:
[13:56]
| All that you mean.
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Sam:
[13:57]
| He's richer than he was he's more prominent than he was he's got more his fingers and more stuff than he was he's got the big megaphone because he owns twitter now yeah so there are a lot of things that make him more visible and more out there than he was five ten years ago i mean and again he was out there five, 10 years ago. If you were paying attention, you saw his stuff, but, but if you weren't paying attention, it would go right over your head.
|
Ivan:
[14:24]
| It's just, I've realized that my asshole radar is pretty good. I mean, I was, you know, I was on the Trump is an asshole, massive raving fuck face like 20 years ago. Plus I, you know, I mean, and you know that. And so I, I don't, I, I, you know, I don't, I don't get it.
|
Sam:
[14:43]
| How you were talking about how Trump was an asshole when you were still in the womb.
|
Ivan:
[14:48]
| Probably but you know I mean I was like I mean this goes I mean my Trump is a fucking like lying piece of shit like loser like it was like late 90s you know, It was in the 90s, for sure. But I just, I don't, I don't, there is this thing where these type of people, like right now, are quite popular. But I guess those are the phases in, like, the world. I mean, Mussolini was also very popular at one point in Italy.
|
Sam:
[15:28]
| So, what the fuck does that say? Yeah, this is why, I mean, we've said before, this is a global thing right now. This isn't just the U.S. Yeah, it's not just here.
|
Ivan:
[15:39]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[15:39]
| Like, people are craving your sort of brash, type A, just push and get whatever the hell you want and don't care about anybody type personalities because they're frustrated with, you know, the anti-immigrant thing seems to be worldwide. there's a frustration generally that with hey democracies are slow and it takes time to build consensus and you don't get results fast and so people are frustrated that like hey we voted for x and it didn't happen so let's you know let's get this guy who's just going to come in like a bulldozer and and do whatever so so.
|
Ivan:
[16:25]
| Anyway uh this is exhausting sam i don't know the fuck i i mean i i um, But I will say that it doesn't help that I haven't been able to exercise as much as I normally do. I notice that the exercise does help get my mind off of this to a certain extent. But I've been I have been traveling for right now for four straight weeks. I will travel the next two weeks again. So I will wind up six straight weeks at least right now of traveling. And it may be more. i i i don't i don't it's i i my my i i i am having to do to go basically every week to puerto rico right now i have found it like inevitable to not not get on a plane and go and meet with people and part of it is also you know look this return to office it well it doesn't impact me in the sense that my company hasn't done that um maybe for some people you're meeting with have yes so you have to go to their office that's right yeah yes you know because no i mean they they've been like they've actually been pretty how do i say pragmatic about that you know they know like sales roles like what are we doing man you know yeah we're not we're not you know you don't you We're not sending you to the office, whatever.
|
Ivan:
[17:54]
| They don't want to spend the money on the real estate. They were closing real estate even before the pandemic, even before stuff and whatever. They were like, you know, but there are certain roles that, yes, they have said that they want them in the office and certain things and consolidated some in certain places. But they're like, look, I mean, you know, field people covering multiple geographies, like based in whatever. I'm like, what are we doing? I mean, you're going to the office to do what exactly? Your boss isn't even there. What the hell are we doing?
|
Sam:
[18:22]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[18:22]
| So that that's that that's been like so they've been pragmatic about that i haven't heard anything about that's gonna make a a change in that at any time soon we don't have an office anywhere to go to anyway unless they get they close they shut it down so it's not like i mean there was but if they told me to go back to the office every day there was an office that was like in a reasonable distance that would have been convenient to go daily that i would have been like okay i i can figure that out it's fine no big deal but they closed it down two years ago so i mean so that you know i mean if.
|
Sam:
[18:58]
| Well, we had a couple of snow days here this week. So got to work from home, which instantly like means, oh, you know, two days this week, didn't have the commute, actually probably got more work done than I would have otherwise. You know, it was nice, I guess.
|
Ivan:
[19:19]
| How full is the office right now?
|
Sam:
[19:21]
| Oh, it's getting so it's actually full now. It's getting so it's actually full. Like if you want to grab a conference room, it's hard to find one now. If you, there are people in the hallways, there are, you know, I have, you know, I think I've said before on this show, like I tend not to sit at my proper desk because I just don't like it. Well, you know, look, look, honestly, the issue and my entire time working has been like this, at least at my current employer, which is over 19 years now.
|
Ivan:
[19:53]
| Oh my God.
|
Sam:
[19:54]
| Yeah. At the beginning, we had personal two-person offices. So we had an actual office with doors and walls and two people per. And as long as I got along with my office mate, that was fine. I had no issue with that. I sat in my office a lot. But either when...
|
Ivan:
[20:19]
| You guys went to an open plan? No more offices?
|
Sam:
[20:22]
| Well, eventually they went to open plans and only managers had offices. And, you know, and even before then, sometimes when it's like I didn't have the best relationship with my office mate, I would do this. But once we went open plan. Almost all the time, I was wandering around trying to find the common areas where they have like couches and comfy chairs and stuff like that.
|
Ivan:
[20:48]
| Those are good. And since they have them there, that's good.
|
Sam:
[20:51]
| Every office tends to have at least a few spaces like that.
|
Ivan:
[20:55]
| Well, that's good to have those, you know, at least. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[20:58]
| And that's usually where I would go. Like my criteria for actually feeling comfortable sitting down and working is I like to have my feet up as opposed to just be sitting in a stiff position. It depends what I'm doing, but I like to have my feet up. So I like to have a footstool or whatever that I can put my feet up. I don't like having people around me. I'm sorry. I like to find a space where the next closest person isn't like right next to me.
|
Sam:
[21:30]
| And and and honestly yeah i don't what i don't like the feel of having somebody sitting where they can see over my shoulder all the time okay and it's not you know and and yes i do sometimes check the news yes i do but it's not like that my primary concern is oh my god they're going to check and they're going to see over my shoulder that i'm not doing work i have to have one of those hot keys to bring up the fake spreadsheet or whatever no no it's it's not that it's just I feel self-conscious in a way, like whenever there's people just hovering and that can see exactly what you're doing second by second. Cause you know, I, I will be productive over the course of the whole day, but I don't want to feel like, like I have to watch. Yeah. I don't want to feel like I'm being watched and I can't like flip to the other window for 10 seconds without somebody questioning it and all that kind of stuff. And so those are the spaces I feel comfortable in. And even there, like at my office now, it's getting harder to find spaces that meet that criteria because there are more people, especially at lunchtime.
|
Sam:
[22:35]
| You know, because, hey, everybody's using those open spaces for lunch. Now I typically don't eat lunch at lunchtime. So I still want to work during that time. So that that's been problematic for me. But, you know, and also like I'm now the person who sits closest to where I, my official desk is, is now actually somebody I do work with. That had not been the case really previously. So I do have stuff to talk to them occasionally so i've spent a little bit more time at my actual desk than i would have otherwise and also lately i've been doing the other time i stay at my desk is if i'm doing something specifically where having bigger multiple screens would be helpful like because if i'm sitting at one of those comfy chairs i just have my laptop screen and that's all yeah yeah and and for lots of things that's absolutely fine i don't mind i don't mind the ergonomics of it i don't mind working on the laptop keyboard and the laptop screen on my actual lap it's fine but there's certain things like you know this last week i've been doing something where i've been trying to refactor this big like this this big like, document full of information okay and i'm trying to restructure it into a new new format that makes it easier to see what the hell is going on and so i've got these two things i'm copying and pasting me in between them and looking yeah you.
|
Ivan:
[23:58]
| Would two screens would would be.
|
Sam:
[24:00]
| So two screens is very helpful in that situation two large screens is very helpful in that situation so i've been sitting more at my desk to do that you know and also like if you know i was gonna say like at home if i'm having a conference call where i'm going to be going over a document as well as needing to see what the people are saying and seeing their faces and stuff i always hook up to my multiple full screen setup at home. But at work, I actually don't. Because my desk is in the middle of everything and there's people around and it feels rude to have a call there. So I go to a conference room or someplace private or one of those little phone booth things, unless there are more people that are also actually in the same building, in which case, okay, well, that's the conference room scenario we go we go to the conference room but even then i'm on my laptop again.
|
Ivan:
[24:52]
| Right so.
|
Sam:
[24:54]
| Although in in those cases we have the big screens but.
|
Ivan:
[24:57]
| So i got i i am now because i got that new ipad pro a couple of months ago which i i have to admit that now that i've got that new ipad pro i am definitely using my ipad way way way way way way more than i used to be doing okay all right I have noticed, holy shit, I am like now, like, just, just, gravitating to using this iPad a lot more than I expected. But one of the good things is that I carry it, you know, when I'm traveling together with my laptop, and so I can use it as a second screen. So when I go to, because we do have an office in San Juan where I've been traveling a lot, and I will go there to a desk, I can, you know, put down my laptop and like connect to the iPad and basically have my two screens right there like handy while traveling. So that's definitely been.
|
Sam:
[25:45]
| I haven't that was.
|
Ivan:
[25:46]
| A true of my old ipad but but this.
|
Sam:
[25:48]
| Was you know but.
|
Ivan:
[25:49]
| It was slower this is working a lot better yes.
|
Sam:
[25:52]
| So like to to i don't know i i guess i'm done with the worst you got me distracted onto the ipad thing the other on ipads i keep thinking these days like do i want an ipad again and so i had.
|
Ivan:
[26:08]
| To let me i had debated about.
|
Sam:
[26:10]
| So let me let me tell you my problem with the do I want an iPad again thing is how that thought process goes to me is okay I think I want an iPad again maybe but I don't need like the high-end iPad Pro sure I don't even know for sure I'm going to use the damn thing so maybe I'll just buy the absolute bottom end iPad like the cheapest ones like 350 or something it's not that expensive i could go do that and and then just see if i use it and then if i use it and and i'm like then maybe i consider upgrading in a year or something but then then i go look at the bottom end ipad and i'm like it's shit well then it's fair not but yeah it's then then you hit apple's famous ladder of their products yes because i'm like well looking at this bottom and ipad it's but it's only a hundred bucks more for this one that's a lot nicer that it's a that and then you add the memory and that's another.
|
Ivan:
[27:18]
| Hundred bucks then you add the cell that's another fifth yeah yeah this just starts.
|
Sam:
[27:23]
| The next thing you know you've got a fully loaded ipad pro Exactly. You know, and then I'm like, you know, I could, I could justify 350 for this. I'm not going to justify 1500 bucks or whatever. And so I ended up not doing anything, you know, but here.
|
Ivan:
[27:42]
| But here is a thing though. But now, because I, you know, went the way that I got a Mac studio because I wanted to have a desktop still regardless. You have your laptop. Do you take your laptop to the office?
|
Sam:
[27:54]
| Oh, my personal laptop? No.
|
Ivan:
[27:56]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[27:56]
| I mean, I have my work laptop, obviously. But the only times I've ever taken my personal laptop to the office are when I, like, during election season when I knew I was going to take lunch off and do some election graphs during lunch.
|
Ivan:
[28:11]
| Okay. Okay.
|
Sam:
[28:12]
| That's the only time I've done that because I've been hesitant. I mean, I've done it a few times anyway. But I'm hesitant to do that kind of stuff on my work laptop. Like, I like to keep personal and work separate. So like, but that's been very rare. I think I've done it like twice ever where I've brought my personal laptop to work. Now, what I do all the time is like right now, as we're recording this podcast, I'm in my office. My laptop is hooked up to three 27 inch screens and a bunch of external hard drives through a dock and a full size keyboard, mouse, et cetera, et cetera. But I find myself now regularly multiple times per week, undocking the laptop and working on it in the couch and the living room. You know, I do that all the time, all the time, you know, because I can I can sort of hang out there like my son's watching TV or something or I put on the news on the on the projector screen and blah, blah, blah.
|
Sam:
[29:09]
| You know, I do that all the time. but you know and and look i have honest questions of like how often would i use the ipad that's the problem if i knew for sure i would use it all the time then that's a different story but like i'm not sure like because last time i had an ipad i sort of slowly used it less before it got too old and died anyway um and i've got the the the pro max size phone now which is good for lots of stuff. So I don't know. And, and like, you know, I, I feel like if I got, if I did get an iPad again, at some point I would get the, the medium, like I wouldn't get an iPad mini and I wouldn't get like the 13 inch size. I'd get like the 11 inch size, the, the in between. And you know, I feel like I would use it for some things, but I'm not sure I'd use it for a lot, which is why I was, I'm like, You know, maybe one of the cheap ones. But then again, I hit that lot.
|
Ivan:
[30:11]
| The thing is, the reason I need it is because of my travel.
|
Sam:
[30:14]
| I don't have that.
|
Ivan:
[30:16]
| Exactly. I needed to get it because of my damn travel. I've gone so much, I don't want to be doing personal shit on my work computer, okay? At all. Okay. I don't want to avoid it. You know, I maybe get some message or something, but I don't do personal shit on my work computer.
|
Sam:
[30:35]
| I mean, you know. As we have discussed many times before, keeping those things as separate as possible is really smart, and it's dumb not to.
|
Ivan:
[30:46]
| It's dumb not to.
|
Sam:
[30:47]
| And, you know, I admit I'm not perfect on that. You know, I've sort of slipped over time.
|
Ivan:
[30:54]
| I slip, like, sometimes it's rarely, okay, I need to do something, I'll use my laptop. But there is some incidental usage, which I know with the company is perfectly fine. But I just don't, you know, I make a rule to not do it. It's just sometimes, you know, maybe I've logged on to an airline website. I needed to do it and I had the laptop right there and I needed to check on something, for example, or something like that. But I'm not reading news. I'm not, you know, I'm not doing stuff. Or maybe I'll, you know, I'm not accessing my bank. I'm not, you know, yeah, I'm not doing any of that stuff.
|
Sam:
[31:28]
| Yeah, so I probably do a little bit more than I should. But anyway, okay, we should move on to our real topic. I did want to say one additional thing first. Well, two, two. First, Pete, Greg, and Ed, I suck. I still have not done your postcards or sent the mug. I will do it.
|
Ivan:
[31:49]
| We're going to cut his salary like as soon as we can.
|
Sam:
[31:53]
| Yeah, so Pete and Greg, I owe doing a postcard and then sending the postcard to Yvonne so Yvonne can add his stuff and send it to you. Ed, I owe you a mug. Someday, someday. Also, last week with Bruce, I mentioned that I'm near to the point of ready to do media reviews again, and I was hoping to do one this week, but I didn't get, I didn't finish like logging my stuff. So I'm not ready to do that yet. Maybe next week. We'll see. And that is it. Shall we take a break, Yvonne, and then come back and talk about our more newsy stuff?
|
Ivan:
[32:24]
| Breaky, breaky, breaky, breaky.
|
Sam:
[32:27]
| Breaky, breaky, breaky. Okay, here we go. Okay, on the AlexEmslow.com subject for a second, there are new videos this week that have been posted, one of which was posted on February 6th about a snow day from a previous February 6th exactly eight years ago. So Alex made sure to edit the video of him and I playing in the snow from eight years ago and made sure to schedule the posting to be exactly eight years after the damn thing was recorded. Wow.
|
Sam:
[33:43]
| And I will add to that. We had snow this week. So we went out in the snow also exactly eight years from that previous video. in fact the video posted while we were outside playing in the snow again and not only that he he had us do activities to recreate what we had done in the video eight years previously now that was all of course recorded on video which will be probably be published i doubt in another eight years at the pace he's going but maybe if you're lucky it will be out in another 50 years if you come back and you know check in at that point while when alex is retired and catching up in that stuff and we're long dead you know but good lord but anyway and also also i will add he convinced me to post on my own youtube channel not the curmudgeon's corner but a very embarrassing video of me singing and dancing along to stuff on the apple tv including the very famous song hamster dance you know on uh on my youtube channel it's six minutes long and uh it sounds and.
|
Sam:
[35:09]
| And I am neither a good singer nor a good dancer. I make some motions that in retrospect are, are regrettable. Some of which involved the dog, some of which involved a stuffed animal.
|
Ivan:
[35:28]
| And so, okay.
|
Sam:
[35:30]
| Anyway, it's out there. So yeah, that's, that's, that's, Okay, so, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[35:37]
| You know, I'm going to give a data point, like right now. Great news for Donald Trump, according to the RCP average.
|
Sam:
[35:46]
| Oh, yeah. His approval rating?
|
Ivan:
[35:48]
| Oh, yeah. The favorable, unfavorable. I have never seen anybody. Oh, no. It's actually, yeah, he, I guess it's, it's. Actually, I guess it's improved. But compared to... I'm looking at the polls that are there. I'm noticing there's a big one with a plus 10. He seems to be sliding back the other way. I don't think I've ever seen a slide from... Because he came in with an approval, positive approval at this point. But I think that he will go down. So given where it is, like right now, he's going down quite quick. So, yeah, he's at, it says plus 3.4. But RCP has very few. There's been very little of this. I saw it 538.
|
Sam:
[36:43]
| What's interesting, too, is usually they do favorability for people who are out of office and they do approval rating for people who are in office. I've noticed 538 has a page up for approval ratings, but it's his last term. they don't have one up for this term.
|
Ivan:
[36:59]
| No, no, no. There is one in 538 for his term.
|
Sam:
[37:02]
| Oh, yeah. I just flipped to it. I just flipped to it. It's got very few, though. It's got very few. It's got very few. They don't have a graph yet. The other thing they had...
|
Ivan:
[37:11]
| No, there's a graph.
|
Sam:
[37:12]
| I see it right here. No, no, no. Sorry. They have that graph. What I meant, on previous ones, they had comparison graphs for all the other presidents.
|
Ivan:
[37:22]
| All the other presidents. Yes, yes, yes.
|
Sam:
[37:24]
| And they don't have that up yet. Like they had a little chart at the bottom where you could look at comparison.
|
Ivan:
[37:31]
| There was one that showed that he's his, you know, yeah, he's.
|
Sam:
[37:36]
| But the average there is still at a, you know, approval 49% disapproved 44.2. It's still positive.
|
Ivan:
[37:43]
| It's still positive.
|
Sam:
[37:44]
| Which, if you flip that.
|
Ivan:
[37:46]
| I think the one thing compared, like, Biden, when he came in into the last term, his positive was, like, plus 22. So he started off with a plus four. Not exactly a...
|
Sam:
[37:59]
| Well, he started out at plus eight. He's down to a plus four already after three weeks.
|
Ivan:
[38:03]
| Okay, yeah. Right.
|
Sam:
[38:05]
| Sorry, let me not round. Plus 8.2 initially is now plus 4.8. So closer to 5 than 4. But yeah.
|
Ivan:
[38:14]
| It's only been two weeks.
|
Sam:
[38:16]
| Three. Well, almost three. Almost three.
|
Ivan:
[38:17]
| Almost three.
|
Sam:
[38:18]
| Two and a half.
|
Ivan:
[38:19]
| It feels like three years. Fuck. Jesus Christ. What are we going to talk about? Do I got to choose?
|
Sam:
[38:27]
| You choose first. If you want me to choose first, I can choose first. You know? It's okay. I mean, look, one easy way to divide it, if you wanted to.
|
Ivan:
[38:37]
| Okay, all right, go ahead.
|
Sam:
[38:39]
| Well, first of all, we could try to avoid Trump entirely, but that's hard. But if we're going to do Trump stuff, we could divide it into things he's actually been doing, and then the reaction to it. Could be a separate segment. Or we could pick specific things. Like we could talk about tariffs or immigration or, or Elon Musk going into all the agencies or something like that. I don't know. What do you want to do? You know, this is the kind of stuff that like other people would like plan before we start, but no, for us. No, no. We're doing it live.
|
Ivan:
[39:18]
| Yeah, we're doing it live. Um, well, uh, Well, let's talk about, I guess, I think the number one thing right now is what is going on with the government, the federal employees in the government. Okay. All right. And, and, and Doge in general and what they're, what they're trying to do. This is, it's, it's, well, the first thing that they, they did, which they've been pushing hard, which all of a sudden a federal judge actually blocked a couple of days ago. Since the beginning, I had said, by the way, that the strategy, and I'd shared a link to one group that has been opposing legally many of these things that are happening, that number one strategy is to just start suing for everything. Okay, all right. This is the only good tactic that's available, like, right now, is to fucking drag them into court.
|
Sam:
[40:18]
| Quick tangent here, and maybe we'll talk more about this later, maybe not. But I just want to say, how people... There's been so many criticisms about how people are reacting. And we did ourselves, like two weeks ago when we were talking about here, we were talking about how the only Democrat who's responding well is AOC, blah, blah, blah, in terms of communications.
|
Ivan:
[40:44]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[40:45]
| And I feel that's true. And maybe the Democrats have stepped up a little bit in the last week or so in a way they hadn't before. But still, it's improving communications. And I hear lots of people going, why aren't you doing anything? Why aren't you doing it? And I'm like, look, because you didn't vote them control of anything.
|
Ivan:
[41:05]
| Thing, right.
|
Sam:
[41:06]
| There's, you know, basically, look, there's two things you can make noise.
|
Ivan:
[41:11]
| You can't even drag them. You can't even subpoena them to drag them into hearings.
|
Sam:
[41:16]
| You can't do anything. So there's communication strategy. You can make noise. And so I hear people saying, oh, no, are you going to send them a sternly worded letter? Well, fuck, that's about all they can do. I'm sorry. Now, there's a bit more like you can be more effective in the communication than a sternly worded letter. You can you can do performative event. You can do protests, performative events. People have pointed out that in the Congress, you can pull out every possible procedural delay tactic you possibly can. You may not be able to stop things, but you can slow things down. And you can also choose to just oppose everything. Like the McConnell style, just make everything fail. Like, as opposed to, like, there's still a strand of the Democrats of, oh, well, let's find places where we can do bipartisan cooperation. Oh, fuck this shit.
|
Ivan:
[42:15]
| No, fuck this.
|
Sam:
[42:16]
| You know, you've got certain Democrats voting for nominees and stuff like that.
|
Ivan:
[42:21]
| This ad has just, you know, fuck that shit.
|
Sam:
[42:25]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[42:26]
| No.
|
Sam:
[42:27]
| I mean, but yeah.
|
Ivan:
[42:28]
| This has to be right now scorched earth.
|
Sam:
[42:30]
| Yes. Yeah, I don't. Every time I see one of those where it's like some set, you know, some some one of his nominees, instead of being a party line vote, has like 60 votes or something. I'm like, what the fuck are those Democrats doing?
|
Ivan:
[42:45]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[42:46]
| I don't care if it's a sort of normie. I don't care if it's and Rubio was nearly unanimous. You know, I don't care if he was a formal former senator and fairly normal, like oppose, oppose, oppose be a damn opposition. But but yeah, so you can do more of those kinds of things. But otherwise, the main thing that's possible right now is lawsuits. And there are all sorts of groups which you were about to talk about. And I'll let you get back to in a second who are doing lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. but and they you know they'll probably a bunch of them go up to scotus and who knows what will happen there given the current supreme court uh it probably depends on the issue but that those are the things right now the things that democrats can do are make noise slow things down a little bit in legislator in the legislature states blue states can oppose in various ways and lawsuits And that's really it. So the people who are going like, why aren't you doing something? Why aren't you doing something? You're acting like everything is normal and you're just running for 2026 instead of like you're doing something. It's like, well, you didn't give them the House. You didn't give them the Senate. You didn't give them the presidency. The Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative majority. What the hell do you want them to do?
|
Ivan:
[44:13]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[44:13]
| You know, and I know some of them are like, let's have a revolution already, but like, come on. Things, you know, well.
|
Ivan:
[44:24]
| A revolution when, okay, look, those go south. No, no, no, it's not that the problem is, it's not that it's that look, the majority of people, I know that we've had this discussion for a few times on, on our Slack. Oh no, it was still whether it, because people are saying this was stolen. This is whatever. And I'm like, listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to say this, but the vote, the majority of fucking people that went to vote, even when you take into account all of this shit and whatever, whatnot voted for this.
|
Sam:
[44:57]
| Yep.
|
Ivan:
[44:58]
| That's the reality. Narrowly, but yes, narrowly, but they did.
|
Sam:
[45:03]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[45:03]
| This is what they fucking voted for. You know, you, you.
|
Sam:
[45:10]
| So you do also get, I mean, and I, I enjoy watching these videos as much as anybody, but I don't know. I don't think any significant numbers are changing their minds yet, But you get videos of these, you know, they're calling them to fuck around and find out videos, right? Where it's like some Trump voter who now is already within the first three weeks suffering consequences from the fact that Donald Trump is in charge. the most I've seen several with people who are being rounded up by immigration services or their family members are the most recent one that's been going around are a couple of farmers who were reliant on aid that has been frozen by Musk and his company and are like I'm going to lose my fucking farm and it's like well sorry dude listen they the.
|
Ivan:
[45:58]
| One thing is but but I do think that one of the things that's very interesting about all these videos is that these people you know these people are upset because they took away something from them directly.
|
Sam:
[46:11]
| Yes yes and i know it's all.
|
Ivan:
[46:14]
| About the selfish prick vote.
|
Sam:
[46:16]
| Okay and i've seen a few videos calling this out as well including one you shared on the questions corner slack yvonne but others as well that all of this and this comes back to the core issue of empathy which i think underlies a lot of american politics right now is there's just apparently half of the voting public who can't understand empathy every every decision is about well how will it affect me and if it if it's not them it doesn't even cross their mind like oh this is gonna screw this other group that i'm not a part of well why would i care about that you know not.
|
Ivan:
[46:58]
| Not just why do i care about that i hate that group because they're maybe taking something from me.
|
Sam:
[47:03]
| Right. Whereas then all of a sudden on a whole bunch of these videos and like, and just, not just videos, I've seen stories about it in other places. You know, it's suddenly... The Trump policy is affecting them.
|
Ivan:
[47:19]
| Them.
|
Sam:
[47:20]
| You know, directly or their family directly. And then they're like, oh, my God, this isn't what I voted for. And it's like, you didn't think it would be you, you jackass.
|
Ivan:
[47:31]
| Right. Yes.
|
Sam:
[47:32]
| Like, there is not a single thing.
|
Ivan:
[47:36]
| They called you all by name and you didn't think it was going to be you.
|
Sam:
[47:40]
| There's not a single thing Donald Trump has been doing so far that he did not completely telegraph during the campaign.
|
Ivan:
[47:46]
| Correct.
|
Sam:
[47:47]
| Like, nobody should be surprised about a fucking thing. And, you know, I've heard people say, well, you know, I didn't have time to read all that stuff. I didn't have time to research it. Well, fuck you. You know, I'm sorry. Like, the information was out there.
|
Ivan:
[48:06]
| It was repeated over and over. And you said that the Democrats were all lying.
|
Sam:
[48:12]
| Yes, that's the other thing. It's like, oh, you're lying. That's not true. He has nothing to do with Project 2025. None of that stuff is real. You know, he's, oh, he just says that. He's loud and blustery, but he won't actually do that.
|
Ivan:
[48:27]
| Right, right, right.
|
Sam:
[48:28]
| He was president before and we were fine, you know?
|
Ivan:
[48:32]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[48:33]
| So, anyway. So, back to Elon Musk. Lawsuits. Lawsuits are one of the ways that Democrats can actually fight right now.
|
Ivan:
[48:42]
| It's really the only good tool that they have at their disposal.
|
Sam:
[48:47]
| It's the only thing that isn't just talk, essentially. It's the only thing.
|
Ivan:
[48:51]
| And it's the only one that has teeth in any way, shape, or form. And because as much as the reason is, when you get a court order like that, as much as people say, oh, man, they're just ignoring or whatever, listen. Ignoring it always has consequences, you know, down the road. You can't just, you know, it's hard. You know, it becomes hard.
|
Sam:
[49:19]
| And so it does become hard. But I think one of the open questions that we're still in very early days is, does the Trump administration try to push these things hard in terms of ignoring and or just like trying to actively get around some of these court orders, you know, I think in some cases already, it seems like they've given lip service to the court order, changed a couple things, but then tried to keep doing it anyway in a different way, and then only to be slapped down again by the next court order. And the question is how hard they push. Do we ever get to that point where the Trump administration explicitly says, we're ignoring that? So far, no. So far, no. But I think that's what everybody's worried about, right? Because if you get to that point, then you have the true constitutional crisis.
|
Ivan:
[50:16]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[50:16]
| You know, and frankly, like I mentioned the 6-3 court before, there's a chance by the time this gets to the court, Trump will win a lot of these. The court has signaled.
|
Ivan:
[50:29]
| But actually, that's not true, Sam.
|
Sam:
[50:32]
| Well, no.
|
Ivan:
[50:33]
| The reality is that a lot of these decisions that have not been about religious or faith or whatever stuff. The reason why many people were pissed off at this court right now is because you had Amy Coney Barrett, and they've been calling her a traitor, not voting for them on this shit.
|
Sam:
[50:53]
| To be absolutely clear, I said they may win a lot of these, not all of them. And I think one of the things that they've explicitly said is part of their strategy is they want to throw tons and tons and tons of these into the court system, get them up to SCOTUS. and if there's 600 of them and they lose 500 and win 100 they're going to be happy with the 100 they won i.
|
Ivan:
[51:17]
| Don't know they but listen they had won like i don't know how many they lost one and they were pissed.
|
Sam:
[51:22]
| Well no they will of course be pissed at you know well and then the question will they ignore scotus even then but like but you know here's the thing like it depends on which ones too, right? And one of the things, the court has signaled that they like, the current 6-3 majority, or at least five of the majority, are hot on the unitary executive kind of thing. They like executive power. They like giving the executive more than they used to. There have been a number of rulings in that direction over the last couple of years. And so they're not, not, not a hundred percent consistently. There are a few counter examples and it also does appear to depend on who's president. So I don't know that they're completely consistent. Like there's some rulings that have stripped power from the executive, but it was while Biden was president. And would they have ruled the same way if it was Trump doing the same thing? I am not convinced that they would. Like, it would be nice to think it would be consistent, but I don't know that it is.
|
Ivan:
[52:33]
| You know, listen, the one that I think that we're against it, And listen, the reality is that we don't know exactly what's going to happen.
|
Sam:
[52:43]
| We don't.
|
Ivan:
[52:43]
| One thing.
|
Sam:
[52:43]
| And it may take a while.
|
Ivan:
[52:45]
| But the one thing is that the number one strategy that they have to do is every single thing that they're doing, they have to challenge the legality of it. OK. All right.
|
Sam:
[52:55]
| Democrats need to learn from Donald Trump himself.
|
Ivan:
[52:59]
| Yeah. Delay, delay, delay, delay.
|
Sam:
[53:02]
| Like Donald Trump was such a master of this. I mean, he made he made things that normally in routine cases are settled in a day, expand into years. Yes. Or at least months for the one step. Yeah. And just through taking advantage of every single procedural opportunity.
|
Ivan:
[53:27]
| You have to throw every fucking lawyer that you got with every fucking bullshit thing that every little tiny thing you want to drag every single doge guy and Elon Musk and all of those into depositions and do it to things you want to fucking make their lives miserable in court. and put him through the chipper on every single one like that asshole said the other day about USAID. The guy is a disgusting fucking prick. By the way, doing Vladimir Putin's...
|
Sam:
[54:06]
| People might not know.
|
Ivan:
[54:07]
| The only... The biggest major asshole we've got right now operating. Fucking Elon Musk. He is such a dirtbag. I I really hate him so much.
|
Sam:
[54:22]
| You're adding him to the list with Donald Trump with people you're willing to openly hate.
|
Ivan:
[54:27]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[54:31]
| Uh yeah no.
|
Ivan:
[54:33]
| Oh and putin putin's on that list okay it's fine it's a pretty distinctive list what you what i've got the three people i've got is fucking putin trump and elon musk um.
|
Sam:
[54:45]
| Yeah i i mean look the all these cases are i'm not all of them but the the strategy is almost explicitly, look, we're going to do things that seem to be clearly illegal, but the traditional way that administrations have done this stuff before is at the very least, when they do something that is on the edge, they have the Office of Legal Counsel or whatever write up a document with some justification for why it's really legal. Right. And then they go do it. Now, sometimes those justifications are pretty weak, you know, but they do something. They do something to say, here's why it's legal, and then they do it, and then someone takes them to court, and then the court decides and sometimes overturns it. The Trump strategy seems to be, fuck that. We're just going to do what we want. and the burden is on whoever doesn't like us to take us to court about it. And then we'll worry about it. Like, we're not going to try to figure that stuff out first. We're not going to, like, try to justify in advance. We're just going to do what we want to do and then let them try to stop us.
|
Sam:
[56:08]
| And, you know, and look, here's the problem with that is, you know probably from our point of view is legal stuff is relatively slow in the end now we've they're within the first few weeks there are already some temporary restraining orders there's some preliminary injunctions the you know for the the most obvious one like the this birthright citizenship stuff is like on hold there uh a lot of there have been judges saying no elon's team can't go into these agencies they can't do this they can't do that well today the.
|
Ivan:
[56:44]
| Judge completely like blocked them and told them to actually destroy all the data they had captured from treasury. Like a judge ordered that today.
|
Sam:
[56:53]
| Right. Yeah. I saw that. And the, the question is on all of these things, is speed and and yes and yes how can like because traditionally the court system as we saw with the donald trump cases is slow is very very slow so i think part of the trump plan is do enough damage so by the time anybody even tries to stop you it's already done yes like and yeah so then then like let's talk about us but.
|
Ivan:
[57:25]
| I think that they'll then they'll they'll have to rebuild it the way that they want to, which is what I think that they did with USAID. Because Marco Rubio is one that has for years advocated for USAID shit, but now they want it to be reconstituted under the, you know, Secretary of State, you know, basically under the State Department and Rubio, they just wanted to do things the way that they want. So, hey, we get rid of everybody because we are doing this purity test of everybody. So let's not even do the purity test. Let's just fucking and fire them all, and then we'll be forced to rehire a whole bunch of them because, you know, probably we did this illegally, and then we'll just bring back the ones that we want, and then we'll just, you know, pay off the ones that we don't want back. It seems to me that that's the ultimate strategy because the funding isn't going to take away. The legal framework is forcing it to exist, so it seems like it's their entire M.O. for this shit.
|
Sam:
[58:23]
| Yeah. And this is exactly the point here is like they can do what they've done with USAID, for instance, then lose all the court cases and still end up with what they wanted at the end.
|
Ivan:
[58:36]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[58:36]
| Like they will still have the impact they wanted even after they lose the cases, because by the time this makes its way through court, there will be facts on the ground. Like even now, like right now, all of these USAID people have been told they're fired, essentially. Now, there's a court order saying, no, you can't do that. But if you're one of those employees, what are you doing right now?
|
Ivan:
[59:04]
| Nothing. You're twiddling your thumbs and getting paid. That's it.
|
Sam:
[59:06]
| You're twiddling your thumbs. You're getting paid. They're definitely telling you.
|
Ivan:
[59:11]
| But all the work was stopped.
|
Sam:
[59:12]
| All the work was stopped. All the work was stopped. It's not going to resume. Even if they're court orders that happen, these people are, you know, any sense that they might have had about job security has gone. So, you know, they're all looking for other opportunities anyway. You have already broken the agency, regardless of what happens from this point out.
|
Ivan:
[59:35]
| Yeah yeah yeah yeah totally yeah.
|
Sam:
[59:38]
| And and this is true like the other big one where this is happening right now is fbi and doj for that matter they're they're doing purges they're gathering lists of anybody who had anything to do with the january 6 investigations no matter how minor there have been lawsuits on this and injunctions from judges as well in terms of where this list can go and blah, blah, blah. But what have you done? The entire agency is fucking scared. The entire agency is frozen in place because they don't know what their futures are. They don't know what they're doing. And they're also clearly the messages out there loud and clear that no, if you just, do your job and like try to do things based on the law and the established procedures that have existed for decades rather than follow the political orders no matter what then you're fucked you know and so yeah you know that and you know i mentioned this to bruce last week the result of this is not going to be a smaller less powerful fbi now it's.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:51]
| The one that they want.
|
Sam:
[1:00:52]
| It's going to be a probably even more powerful FBI that instead of holding to any general principles of law and accountability and transparency and blah, blah, blah, is all about just go after the people Trump wants you to go after.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:14]
| Well, there is one thing today in the news where Trump apparently is very displeased that that despite all the redirection and effort on immigration, the reason I bring it up is because they told a whole bunch of FBI agents to stop doing criminal stuff and focus on immigration. And they're all like, what the fuck are we supposed to do about this? I mean, it's like, you're like, what the hell? You want me to stop investigating actual crimes, you know, and focus on immigration? Do what exactly? And so that was one thing, but that Trump is very displeased that the deportation numbers are not higher. Which is something that we have said already, you know, I don't know how many fucking times, okay, that it's just mathematically.
|
Sam:
[1:02:07]
| Well, there are a couple of things here. One, apparently arrest numbers are up a little bit, but deportation numbers less so because they don't have the resources to actually make some of these people leave. So they're actually releasing a bunch of these people.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:22]
| Releasing them, a whole bunch of these people. Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:02:24]
| You know, so. So, by the way.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:26]
| This was what was trying, you know, a lot of what they're trying to give them the funding and what Biden had done with with the Republicans that they came up with this compromise deal, blah, blah, blah, that Trump blocked. And so they haven't done any of that. It's not like they multiplied the people. The problem is, as we've said before, oh, Biden is letting everyone in. No, they're Jesus Christ. The deportation machine under Biden was in full fucking force. it's just a lot of people you don't i mean what you guys want to do is almost humanly impossible to do.
|
Sam:
[1:03:02]
| Also i will add the donald trump folks have been on tv and stuff once again saying things like look look look yeah yes everybody who's in here undocumented is potentially subject to deportation but of course we are going to concentrate on the criminals and the violent people and blah blah The percentage of people being arrested that have any sort of criminal issue associated with them other than it was.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:32]
| Less than 50 percent that I.
|
Sam:
[1:03:33]
| Recall. Well, more so that percentage is down from the Biden administration because because they're pushing to get the overall arrest and deportation. Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:44]
| Because they want the numbers up. We need to pump the numbers.
|
Sam:
[1:03:47]
| And actually, the number of actual criminals is relatively small compared to the number of overall undocumented immigrants. That the only way to get the numbers up is to arrest more people who aren't criminals. Yes. And so, yes. So far, so far.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:10]
| Basically, it's that it's very, you can't do something that is completely based on a lie.
|
Sam:
[1:04:15]
| Yeah. And so they have not yet. They have not yet succeeded in pushing numbers to significantly higher than where they were happening under Biden anyway. Now they're going to keep trying. You know, as you said, Trump is mad. Trump is redirecting like FBI and other federal agencies to help with this.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:39]
| And what the fuck are we supposed to do man.
|
Sam:
[1:04:42]
| And the end.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:43]
| You know what here's a worse thing right that one of the unions that was that is always shown to be pro-trump is the cbp folks okay those people are pro-trump now just imagine this that happens right now say that he starts doing the same thing that he did with the other areas and starts like a purge of these guys right and saying you guys are not doing what I want. I'm going to fucking get rid of you. What that's going to do is that the morale of this entire group is going to go into the shitter. Because they go in, and they have been, they were pro him. They were trying to do as much as he wants. We're trying out there, we're doing it, and now you're going to shit all over us, okay? Because we can't, because, wait, because we can't do what's impossible. Okay, all right? Based on the resources that we've got, okay?
|
Sam:
[1:05:34]
| And by the way, it's not like ICE and these other agencies are full of like, you know, liberals who are all about, like, let's let everybody in and be nice to people.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:47]
| Yeah, they're not full of bleeding heart liberals. Okay. All right. You people, you're fucking deluded. Okay. So the one thing that I.
|
Sam:
[1:05:56]
| Not the FBI either, by the way.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:58]
| Not the FBI either. You know, so which is one of the things that's so crazy. This reminds me of what the hell happened in the Soviet Union every time that, like, especially Stalin had tried to force, like, the... people in the fields to grow more and basically just, you know, punish them or push them because they weren't meeting his, they set these agriculture quotas that were almost fucking impossible. And then they were like forcing to try to do it. And then what happened was production didn't go up. It actually started going down because, you know, these people were like actually faithful or whatever. And then what you're doing is you're shitting all over them because what you asked to do is impossible. And so at one point, they're like, well, fuck you. That's it. Bring somebody else. Fuck you. Can't do it. And so I don't know what the hell, but yeah, he's going to be pissed. But I don't see how, you know, anything really changes related to this at this point, like right now. I mean, because they went out and already in full force. They deployed everybody. Hey, you had all these like famous people like wearing like, uh, you know, Dr. Phil and I, Oh my God, you know, going out there. There was one operation where I saw where they said 400 people to one place. You know how many people they caught?
|
Sam:
[1:07:22]
| One, I believe.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:24]
| Yes. Correct. One. Very productive use of resources.
|
Sam:
[1:07:29]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:30]
| But yeah, I, I, I hate this. We've got how many more, how much more time of this, fucking administration do we have?
|
Sam:
[1:07:41]
| Oh, let's see. There are a number of websites tracking this. Trump timer. Let's see if I can find one real quick. Trump countdown timer. 1,441 days, 21 hours, 42 minutes, and 25 seconds as we're recording this.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:57]
| I will openly declare right now that my alcohol consumption this year has been far higher than it's been in any recent year.
|
Sam:
[1:08:06]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:07]
| I, you know, by the way, I don't drink that much anymore as I used to. Okay. But, but definitely it, because, and that's my point. I had, I was barely drinking and now I'm like, you know, eight drinks a week. From almost like two drinks a week or one or zero, maybe.
|
Sam:
[1:08:31]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:32]
| This is not good.
|
Sam:
[1:08:33]
| That's a big increase.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:35]
| Yes. Now, it's better than when I was younger When I would like I mean, I drink eight drinks in one day Regularly So, relatively speaking This is a massive improvement Well.
|
Sam:
[1:08:48]
| There you go Yeah, so, okay, We started out, and we've taken a tour of all kinds of different things, but we started out specifically talking about Elon and Doge going into things. Do we want to get back to that? Anything more to say about that?
|
Ivan:
[1:09:09]
| Listen, we did go specifically into what the strategy is of what they want to do and what the outcome is. I don't think that there is anything more to say about it. That is what they're going to try to do.
|
Sam:
[1:09:20]
| Well, the one thing I'll add, though, is as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong on this, most of the court orders coming down are narrow. Like, OK, you have to undo what you did at the.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:36]
| There is one lawsuit that is actually just, you know, trying to shut them.
|
Sam:
[1:09:41]
| Down entirely because.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:42]
| What I'm saying is that they did file and it's been it's been it's been filed a few weeks and they've got like. You know, they've got a lot of people that sign up. Citizens for Responsible and Ethics in Washington, by the way, if you want to donate to them.
|
Sam:
[1:09:59]
| Yeah, that's what CRU is.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:01]
| That's what CRU is. But they've got the American Public Health Association, American Federation of Teachers, Vote Vets Action Fund. And they filed basically a suit, basically seeking the court to just absolutely just stop Doge on its tracks. Now, it's been out there for a couple of weeks.
|
Sam:
[1:10:19]
| Because what's happened so far is they've been stopped from doing specific things in specific places. But overall, their response to that is, OK, well, we'll just go do this somewhere else for right now. And, you know, and look, to be clear, let's be explicit here. The problem here is not the general idea of, hey, let's look at government and try to eliminate things that, well, even eliminate things that just, there's a policy disagreement from the president or certainly not efficiencies and things like that. The problem is there is a mechanism to do that. It is relating to, you know, you, look, the Republicans have both houses of Congress.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:04]
| Go pass some fucking laws. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:11:07]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:08]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:11:08]
| Go. Yeah. You want to eliminate USAID?
|
Ivan:
[1:11:12]
| Go up.
|
Sam:
[1:11:13]
| Go eliminate USAID.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:15]
| Exactly.
|
Sam:
[1:11:16]
| You have the mechanism to do that. You have both houses of Congress. Okay. Yeah. You might need to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate to do it, but you could do it.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:26]
| You could do that.
|
Sam:
[1:11:27]
| You could do that. You could. And same thing here for all of these massive cuts elsewhere. The problem is what these agencies are doing is, for the most part, what is required by law.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:42]
| Law.
|
Sam:
[1:11:43]
| And also meeting obligations that they have already entered into. So there's also flexibility in terms of saying, okay, you know, like the grants on health research and stuff like that. It's one thing to say we're going to put a pause on approving new one. It's another thing entirely to say we're not going to pay the ones.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:03]
| That are already approved.
|
Sam:
[1:12:06]
| That's different. And the legal obligations associated are different. And so there's a lot of stuff here. Like I said, the approach here is do what you want first and let them try to stop you. But there's so much here where it's like we're not trying to change the policy for the future. we're trying to put a wrecking ball through everything that's already there that is just, executing the law as it exists today right you know and that's the you know look i'd have a if they were trying to do it the legal way i would oppose it anyway you know right most of these things are bad ideas that like usa id is actually incredibly valuable you know here's.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:55]
| The one thing Like USAID was something that was valued by both Republicans and Democrats.
|
Sam:
[1:13:00]
| Alike.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:01]
| And the main reason is because it's one of the instruments of soft diplomacy that we do around in order to counter both Putin and China, OK, in general, in these countries. And the reality is that the number one advocate that wanted to fucking shut down for, USAID, was fucking Vladimir Putin. And most of the shit that they have been spreading about why USAID sucks is fucking Russian propaganda. And these guys are so fucking dumb. Now, I know that Marco Rubio knows that it's fucking Russian propaganda because I know that he's talked about it. But right now, Marco Rubio, as the major fucking ass kisser that he is, he has shoved his head so far up their asses that he's not going to say anything right now about this and just going to let him do a fucking wrecking ball over something that I know he knows, okay, is what Vladimir Putin wants. But he is such a fucking caaskisser that he's not going to do anything to oppose it right now.
|
Sam:
[1:14:03]
| Right. And like you said, maybe on the back end, he tries to keep some things going. Like already, like...
|
Ivan:
[1:14:10]
| Actually, I'm pretty sure that he's going to keep most of this shit going.
|
Sam:
[1:14:14]
| Well, one thing that's already been in the news is George W. Bush's, what is it called, PFR, whatever, the anti-AIDS program. That's one of the things where Rubio has already been out there saying, no, no, no, that's one of the things that has an exception. That can keep going. That can keep going. That can keep going. Meanwhile, reports from the field is it has that.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:33]
| They cut it, right. They've stopped it.
|
Sam:
[1:14:35]
| They've stopped it because of the general guidance, but that's clearly something Rubio wants to keep going again.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:39]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:14:40]
| We'll see how that goes, whether he can stand it back up again. but again it's about you know once they've destroyed it they have to try rebuilding the specific thing that they care about yes and by the way rubio might like that program who knows if donald trump does you know right he might just.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:58]
| Stay for fucking kill more africans fuck it yeah he's like yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:15:01]
| Let him die why do we why why do we why.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:04]
| Do we care why do we care about a whole bunch of Black people in Africa. Fuck them. That may be, by the way, this is me quoting Trump. Please do not quote me out of context. Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:15:16]
| Hypothetically quoting Trump. You don't actually have a real quote.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:18]
| I'm sure he's probably said something like that.
|
Sam:
[1:15:21]
| Shithole countries and all.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:23]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:15:23]
| Yes. Yes. But yeah, like the fundamental calculus there is, and this is part of the response too. USAID, targeting it is a strategically good first place for something like Doge to go to.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:42]
| Well, because it's very small.
|
Sam:
[1:15:44]
| Relatively, compared to other agencies. Well, it's relatively small, but also, foreign aid is unpopular. If you just poll people.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:53]
| Like— Foreign aid! No, no, leave the money here!
|
Sam:
[1:15:56]
| Right. Like the reasons why this is actually good for American interests are more complicated and subtle. It's like, yeah, it's it's like, yes, making people like us more in other countries. by helping them, does come back with positive benefits to us in the end. I've heard people who are involved in the State Department and USAID giving interviews over the last few days talking about how, for instance, various programs that we've done overseas have resulted in massive intelligence gains for us because people were more willing to cooperate to give information than they would be otherwise because they're like, hey, the Americans are actually our friends and, you know, they're good. They helped us. We'll help them.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:48]
| This is the soft diplomacy part, okay? All right? This is deployment of soft power for diplomatic purposes.
|
Sam:
[1:16:55]
| All of this, by the way, is still, if you're only willing to look at it from a purely instrumental how-does-it-help-me point of view, completely ignoring the actual benefits to people that you're.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:09]
| Going to have. right right right i mean you know that's the point so.
|
Sam:
[1:17:12]
| Okay i.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:15]
| Mean yeah so.
|
Sam:
[1:17:16]
| Uh so given that we started talking about usaid i suggest we take another break and most of the stuff we've been talking about so far has been domestic let's just make it a domestic versus international division and talk about international for a bit and then wrap up the show sound sound good okay so here comes another break and then we'll we'll we'll do that back after this yeah yeah, yeah you.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:45]
| Can edit this out i'm gonna go get coffee and water i'll be right back.
|
Sam:
[1:17:48]
| Okay enjoy your why would i edit this out we we all want to know that you're getting coffee i could go get a tea but no no i'll just wait here you're.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:59]
| Like you're fucking break i'm getting too old for this.
|
Sam:
[1:18:02]
| Here's the break, okay we we we are back and uh you know unfortunately this means we missed yvonne laughing at that break that he usually laughs at you know i.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:22]
| I yeah you couldn't hear me laughing but i i yes i was listening to it because i my headphones on it they were still working i'm like oh my god maybe.
|
Sam:
[1:19:34]
| Maybe we got to do more of those yeah yeah there you go okay so So internationally, like real quick, do we own Greenland yet?
|
Ivan:
[1:19:46]
| Let me check. No. And Puerto Rico has not been sold to Denmark either. I'm really disappointed. I was like really rooting for that.
|
Sam:
[1:19:57]
| Do we have the Panama Canal yet?
|
Ivan:
[1:19:59]
| Not that I know of, no. How are egg prices, Sam?
|
Sam:
[1:20:05]
| I hear they're up.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:07]
| Oh, really?
|
Sam:
[1:20:09]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:10]
| Yeah?
|
Sam:
[1:20:11]
| Something about the bird flu but like i i think cdc did finally get to put out an update but they pulled some stuff they they put up one thing about cats and then had to take it back down i don't know what's going on there like so i i guess i don't know something something did.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:30]
| We did we i heard that we were going to pass a balanced budget did we do that.
|
Sam:
[1:20:36]
| Oh is that happening i i I heard that Trump said.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:39]
| Trump said that we were going to pass a balanced budget.
|
Sam:
[1:20:42]
| Oh, did we? I don't think that's happened yet, but I did see some news that they're quote unquote making progress towards a budget deal. Because we've got deadlines coming up really soon.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:54]
| Well, listen, the debt ceiling thing is already, they're already using like the extraordinary measures thing like right now. So, yeah, like right now, yeah, we're in that window, like right now.
|
Sam:
[1:21:08]
| I think the last estimate I heard was sometime in March we hit the debt ceiling, even with the extraordinary measures.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:15]
| Yeah, that's the thing.
|
Sam:
[1:21:17]
| Yeah, it's coming up soon. And the deal where they punted the spending authorization stuff that prevented government shutdown also, I believe, expires in March, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:21:28]
| By the way, gas prices are up.
|
Sam:
[1:21:32]
| Oh, right.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:33]
| Yeah. Imagine that from a month ago. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:21:38]
| Well, we were going to talk international. Oh, before I get to the one that caused the biggest splash this week. Do we have a 51st state yet?
|
Ivan:
[1:21:47]
| No.
|
Sam:
[1:21:48]
| No?
|
Ivan:
[1:21:49]
| No. Canada isn't part of the. Canada has not been a next. No, not that I know of.
|
Sam:
[1:21:56]
| Yeah. He's going to have to get on that. Anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:21:59]
| He's going to have to get on that pretty quick.
|
Sam:
[1:22:00]
| The big international splash.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:02]
| The average regular price, like the price of regular gas right now is 3.196 cents for regular. Let's see. It is higher than it's been the last few months, but it's lower than it was 2022. It is a lot higher than 2021.
|
Sam:
[1:22:24]
| How does it compare to same time each of the last few years? Because you have the annual cycle.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:30]
| 3.196, January, let's see, last year was 3.197, so it's about the same, 3.445, 2023, 3.413, 2022.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:42]
| Now 2021, 2.420, 2020, 2.636. six okay i mean during the trump administration it was lower 20 2.057 to you know two point you know it was in the mid two dollars range during that time but but here's the thing you go back to shit i mean they give you a year for example i remember gas is super expensive 2008 that was It's like last year, W. W. Bush's term. It was a three. It was at the same price as now, which inflation adjusted is way higher than this. Like right now. You know, we had very expensive gas during the Bush administration. And then when the Great Recession started, it dropped, like, significantly. And then it picked back up between 2010 and 11 and 12. And then 2015, it dropped. It was the last year of, you know, Obama. And it stayed relatively low for the next few years. But one of the things that the reason why a lot of that happened was because gas demand was going down. So it's a supply and demand thing. Heaven forbid, Sam. You know, I know it's like shock.
|
Sam:
[1:24:00]
| Imagine that. Now we were we were saying this segment was mostly international. So I was running through the countries.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:06]
| Well, gas comes up.
|
Sam:
[1:24:07]
| Yeah, it comes from places.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:11]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:24:12]
| Yeah, it comes from places. Um, no, but the, the big splash this week was not Greenland or Panama or any of that. It was Gaza. Yes. Oh, it was Gaza. It was Gaza.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:26]
| So what happened, Sam, Trump? Well, before we get to Gaza.
|
Sam:
[1:24:32]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:33]
| Is a war Ukraine over?
|
Sam:
[1:24:35]
| Oh, the war in Ukraine. No, that's not over.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:38]
| In fact, I just look like any, it's look like it's anywhere close to being over.
|
Sam:
[1:24:43]
| In fact, this morning, I just saw news that Zelensky has announced that Ukraine has resumed a new offensive push into Kursk.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:56]
| Yes, I've heard that. Apparently, the Russians have not been able to.
|
Sam:
[1:25:01]
| They've made new advancements and taken over more Russian territory. Now, having said that, within Ukraine, Russia has continued to creep and get a little bit more territory each month. But we are talking a little bit. It's basically still a stalemate. The Kursk thing is that basically Zelensky wants as much of Russia in his hands as possible if they are forced into negotiations.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:28]
| I think it's a brilliant strategy.
|
Sam:
[1:25:30]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:31]
| I mean, I think it's a brilliant strategy. I can't argue with that at all.
|
Sam:
[1:25:36]
| Now, the thing, speaking of Donald Trump and his transactional self that has been reported.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:43]
| Oh, wait, the thing this week? Yes, the rare earth deal.
|
Sam:
[1:25:47]
| Yes. So basically, Trump is saying to Zelensky now, actually, we might continue to support you in this war in exchange for your minerals and rare earths.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:00]
| Actually, I'm like, okay. And Zelensky was like, sure, let's make a deal. Why not?
|
Sam:
[1:26:09]
| Yeah. And because also, by the way, Donald Trump's like what he has proposed for a deal. Actually, I'm going to choke while I'm saying on this. Is it all bad?
|
Ivan:
[1:26:25]
| No, I was shocked too. Listen, I have to think. Listen, I got to tell you something. Marco Rubio must have come up with this. Trump is not smart enough to come up with this. No fucking way.
|
Sam:
[1:26:37]
| It's not just the mineral rights, but also, you know, we've said for a long time that, I mean, we said this the first week after the invasion and then sort of backed off it a little bit and now we're coming back to it, is like, as much as we don't like it, in the end, the end of this is probably going to be Russia taking some territory.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:00]
| But not as much if you've got a piece of Russia on one side and if you make a mineral deal on the other end.
|
Sam:
[1:27:08]
| Right. But the other thing that Donald Trump is adding, like, is that, OK, no NATO membership. However, part of a peace deal would be Western NATO troops all over Ukraine. Like we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll bring in troops from Western Europe. We'll have faces, you know, and so basically as a deterrent.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:31]
| I'm like, where the fuck do I side? Where, where, you know, where the fuck do I side for this deal? I'm like, look, if I were me, I would do what I've done to other people, but they've made an offer like this, but they don't put it in writing. Okay. I've actually gone and put it in writing.
|
Sam:
[1:27:48]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:48]
| I I've gone, Oh, you offered all of this. Perfect. I call the son. I'm calling a fucking lawyer. I'm like, draft this whole fucking thing. Just put it on a page. Just, just take everything he said. Oh, he offered, he offered to get just beautiful. I'm like, here, look, let's, what do we sign? Where do we sign? Can we decide? Sometimes that works, by the way, it's worked. Okay. Because you're just taking whatever he says. It's just fucking. Yeah, go. Yes. Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:28:16]
| So, so far, as far as I can tell, no interest from Putin, but you know, So the other report is that Trump and Putin are close to organizing a summit that will happen sometime soon. So we'll see what happens.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:32]
| Well, I'll have these two guys jerk themselves off on a global stage. Fantastic fucking event that we all are just waiting to see. Fucking Jesus Christ.
|
Sam:
[1:28:43]
| Yeah. Okay. Gaza?
|
Ivan:
[1:28:45]
| Hey, so.
|
Sam:
[1:28:47]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:28:48]
| Did the people in Dearborn get their savior in Trump or did they get what we told them during the fucking campaign when we repeated, hey, did you hear that Jared Kushner basically said that he wants to like ethnically cleanse the whole fucking place and build condos? Which one is the one that is getting the most traction right now?
|
Sam:
[1:29:18]
| Hmm, interesting. You know, Donald Trump apparently promised these folks in Dearborn peace, but didn't say how.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:29]
| How? How? That, ah, that's not true.
|
Sam:
[1:29:33]
| Other people, even before the election on Trump's team, I forget I forget which one it was, but somebody on the campaign, like at an off moment, like accidentally said, why don't we just nuke the whole place? You know.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:50]
| Yes, I remember that one. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:29:53]
| I forget who exactly said it, but. um such.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:57]
| As such people with such a such i mean the the the outpouring of of just empathy and love just just such a big heart that they show to.
|
Sam:
[1:30:08]
| The poor.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:09]
| Suffering people it's just.
|
Sam:
[1:30:10]
| Nothing but of course the thing that happened this week is trump at a dual press conference with netanyahu at the white house based brought up the idea of like the the and by the way apparently it has been reported and he did not tell Netanyahu this before the moment he said it.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:28]
| Oh, no shit. Really? Like, I really needed to know? Yeah, like, I couldn't have guessed that one.
|
Sam:
[1:30:34]
| So he goes and he says, you know, yeah, we're going to take over Gaza after all the people move out, of course, and we will flatten it. We will, like, build the best development you've ever seen. It will be wonderful. It will be the Riviera of the Middle East, et cetera. and oh of course like all the people they they they can go like egypt and jordan they'll take them i'm sure you know of course hasn't talked to those folks either you know and look there, here's the thing first first of all he has repeatedly actually used the word clean in associated in association with this this this is 100% ethnic cleansing yes which violates numerous international laws on the face of it.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:28]
| Wait wait wait wait wait i'm sorry what.
|
Sam:
[1:31:31]
| Yeah really shocking so.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:34]
| You can't you can't so so so let me get this straight if we take i mean how many palestinians are in gaza.
|
Sam:
[1:31:43]
| I'm not even two million ish so.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:45]
| I think two million So if we forcibly relocate 2 million Palestinians to build condos, that's illegal?
|
Sam:
[1:31:56]
| Ah, you know, I'm sure they would all leave voluntarily, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:00]
| You think? I mean, you don't think that they're just going to, we say, hey, we show up in these trains and like we just pack them in like cattle and we ship them off to Egypt? They're not going to be just thankful?
|
Sam:
[1:32:14]
| You know, that actually brings up, like, if you are going to even seriously consider the possibility of, like, hey, let's just give these folks a home elsewhere, okay, the possibility. I'm not, and just to be clear, I'm not saying this is a good idea anyway, but if you were going to take it seriously, you would produce a voluntary option and you would provide, like, here's what Donald Trump would do if he was serious about this. He would say, OK, look, here's the situation. Any Palestinian who wants to.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:53]
| And come to the U.S.
|
Sam:
[1:32:54]
| Is free to come to the U.S. immediately. And we will provide relocation support to get you settled in the United States with a free with a path to citizenship and accelerating.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:06]
| How popular would that be with voters?
|
Sam:
[1:33:10]
| Well, how popular would that be with Donald? you know i i.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:14]
| Well listen remember he's very transactional so therefore i could be he could be like oh because the pentagon what's on the other end because if he thinks for some reason i don't know i guess he thinks that this is like really how i value real estate oceanfront yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:33:31]
| Well i i joked with bruce last week but i'll bring it up again you could get you could give the gossens cleveland, i
|
Ivan:
[1:33:41]
| Mean i listen i don't think that's your new homeland i mean i i i know one thing if they were offering me i'm in puerto rico they're gonna fucking offering me hey we'll take you out of there we're gonna say you know ship you off to fucking cleveland i'm fucking like listen i'll i'll fucking live in a goddamn floating raft in the middle of the ocean before i'm fucking living in cleveland i'll tell you that i'll fucking just you know build a raft out I'm fucking like, you know, like the Cubans do when they cross over without a flot salmon, whatever the fuck. I'll put it together, tie it together. Boom. I'm living on the ocean. Fuck Cleveland.
|
Sam:
[1:34:15]
| But like, look, sorry.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:16]
| People from Cleveland.
|
Sam:
[1:34:17]
| But look, here's the thing. The way to do that would be, yes, provide the incentives. You know, provide a path out of there and provide support and provide like even how like, hey, we will pay you to leave Gaza. Now, this is a bad idea for a number of reasons anyway. But if you were going to do that, a purely voluntary, incentivized way, and pay people for the land you're taking from them as well, by the way. Pay them full value for whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:51]
| Listen, the reason Beebe loved this, of course, listen, I'm sitting there and if I'm Beebe, of course I'm loving this, is because he took completely all the heat off of me. he just completely completely completely completely took all the fucking heat off of me yeah okay i i mean just it i mean i i i just he i'm sure that bb walked out of there and he was like holy shit this trip was genius it couldn't have gone any better if i never planned it.
|
Sam:
[1:35:22]
| Oh yeah and and look there there are a number like one of the conservative members who'd left the coalition with BB was like, hey, if this deal happens, I can be back in.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:32]
| Exactly.
|
Sam:
[1:35:33]
| You know, look, because because basically the ultimate goal of the right wing in Israel is to fully annex West Bank and the Gaza Strip anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:44]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:35:44]
| They want to kick the Palestinians out and take that over as part of Israel with an Israeli population, with a Jewish population, not with the people who live there right now.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:54]
| Right. And the goal of Hamas is to do the opposite to the Israelis. It's like, it's like, I look at fucking Jesus fucking Christ. I love this shit. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:36:04]
| But, but look, nothing like what I said of like a purely voluntary incentivizing. That's not what's on the table.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:11]
| No, no.
|
Sam:
[1:36:12]
| And then talking about.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:13]
| You know, and by the way.
|
Sam:
[1:36:16]
| Well, wait, with Trump's initial comments, it very much seemed like he was like, BBO invite me in and we'll go clear. out in Gaza. But all his staff and everybody and him and a post on Truth Social had to clarify like 24 hours later, oh, no, no, no. U.S. troops won't be necessary because we will take over after Bibi ends the war.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:42]
| Look, look, this is not going to happen. I mean, as much as it's just one of these fucking idiotic spitballs that he has in the middle of fucking something that he thinks is some kind of brilliant brainstorming. But but the one thing that, you know, did happen with this is a it shows the complete disregard and disdain he has for the Palestinian people. If they weren't if if you guys weren't sure of it before, because obviously many people weren't, you know, now he made it crystal clear to all of you, OK, that he basically values them at zero. yep and so and it and bb is thrilled because donald just completely took like a massive amount of heat that he had been getting over all this shit off of his plate and sent it trump's way, so he's going back and he's like, genius yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:37:40]
| So i agree i i cannot see like an actual future where it's like oh yeah the u.s is occupying gaza a year from now.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:51]
| Well, listen, listen, of course, people have short people. Well, I mean, I don't I say short memories. This is a long time ago.
|
Sam:
[1:37:59]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:37:59]
| I mean, but, you know, look, I mean, I remember when, you know, we sent troops to Lebanon.
|
Sam:
[1:38:06]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:07]
| To try to keep the peace. And how did that go, Sam? Do you remember?
|
Sam:
[1:38:12]
| I believe there was a bombing and Ronald Reagan got the hell out of there.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:16]
| Yes. There was a massive bombing at the Marine barracks that killed a lot of Marines. And after that happened, we're like, well, we're out of here. Exactly. Just as I said, that's it. That did not go well. It did not go well in Iraq when we occupied it either. Okay. It really didn't go all that well in Afghanistan. So, you know, it's not going to go well in Palestine either. Gaza. It's just, it's insane. It's an insane plan. Well, I'm saying this.
|
Sam:
[1:38:52]
| Yes. Did I mention this?
|
Ivan:
[1:38:54]
| Oh, by the way, it's a fucking insane plan.
|
Sam:
[1:38:59]
| By the way, any scenario where foreign peacekeepers end up working in the end, the country in question.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:08]
| It can't be us.
|
Sam:
[1:39:09]
| Well, it can't be us. And the country in question also has to fundamentally, they really do have to be sovereign. They need to be the ones making the decisions in the end. It can't be a scenario where we're coming in, for instance, and saying, no, we're in charge.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:24]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:39:25]
| No, no. It has to be, you know, we could help, like, I don't know, maybe we can help in some ways. But here's fundamentally the thing. If anything, the last year plus in Gaza has resulted in Hamas having more support within Gaza than they did before, not less.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:46]
| Hamas, that's not totally accurate. I saw many people that were also fed up with Hamas because of how they dragged them into it. The fact that they wouldn't close a deal on this. OK, the fact that there was a there was a peace offer over and over. I think that you're in a kind of a situation here also where we're, you know, pissed off at the Israelis.
|
Sam:
[1:40:10]
| All I'm saying is that Hamas would still win.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:13]
| I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true. The last time I saw something on polling on the ground.
|
Sam:
[1:40:21]
| Not like they can poll reliably.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:23]
| But on where, you know, not like a regular poll, but the one getting sent to it, people were really angry at Hamas. And the anger had been building over time because there's no resolution. There was no endgame. Okay? All right? It's the same thing as what's happening to Bibi on his end. Okay? you know at first you know a lot of israelis were supportive but as time went on why his position became very untenable is because people were like oh what the fuck we keep fighting we keep killing people people keep dying we're not getting anywhere what the fuck is going on and so you had the flip side on their side too where people were also getting fed up now now that there's a ceasefire that may be a different story but it got to a point i know that that especially because but you got two things on one end i mean israel did kill a lot of the hamas leadership that was there yes okay all right which that that really weakened their position overall in general but at the same time people were getting pissed that there was there were multiple ceasefire offers that kept coming up and they weren't closing and so you had the situation on both sides where both were unhappy with their leadership about this because this fucking ceasefire and i'll tell you that a lot of the reason I understood that the ceasefire finally happened is because of also the discontent on the Palestinian side about that this thing isn't ending. So I don't know what happens if there's an election because of that. Maybe like right now, because there's a, there is just to be clear.
|
Sam:
[1:41:51]
| That's a hypothetical anyway. There's not going to be an election in Gaza.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:54]
| There's not an election anytime soon. Yeah, that's not happening.
|
Sam:
[1:41:58]
| Yeah. So anyway, okay. Now we're near the end of time, but I did want to hit.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:03]
| End of time end of end of times.
|
Sam:
[1:42:05]
| End of times.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:06]
| Yeah it's hey hey no it's not get too hasty here I don't, I'm hoping that I can outlive Trump by a long time.
|
Sam:
[1:42:15]
| Dogs and cats living together.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:17]
| I hope I get a chance to piss on his grave when he's dead. He'll probably put him at that golf course over there where they put, like, what's her name? Ivana, like, over there.
|
Sam:
[1:42:29]
| Just on a corner. Okay. No, I wanted to hit—we need to close up, but I did want to hit the tariff stuff as well real quick. And I think since the last time we talked, Yvonne, we've actually had the tariff threat come and go for Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and there's even been some back and forth in China as well. Let's real quick on the common theme.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:04]
| Is that all of them gave him something that Dio already was getting on?
|
Sam:
[1:43:09]
| Anyway yes the.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:11]
| Three don't the all three they gave them.
|
Sam:
[1:43:13]
| Something colombia canada and mexico colombia canada and mexico it turns out in colombia the main actual like concession that was given anywhere is donald trump conceding not to use military planes and not to have them like all shackled when they're delivered right correct yeah that was it like that because colombia never actually objected to taking flights of migrants back to Colombia that were Colombian citizens. And they'd been happening during the Biden administration all along.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:48]
| Biden administration, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:43:48]
| But they were essentially happening on civilian flights. The people were not, in shackles and all of this kind of stuff. Trump tried to make it incredibly performative by using military planes and sending them in orange jumpsuits and chains. And that's what Colombia said no to. And Donald Trump backed off. And, you know, the flights resumed in the same way they've been going for years. So that's Colombia. For Mexico, by the way, officially on Mexico and Canada, we're only on a 30-day delay on the tariffs, but we'll see what happens. But in Mexico...
|
Ivan:
[1:44:31]
| By the way, and the problem with Mexico and Canada is that the current trade deal in place with them is the worst ever negotiated trade deal ever, that it's just a disaster, Sam. The trade deal that is in place with them is a fucking disaster that is stealing from America. Now, Sam, who negotiated? Who? Yes. Who signed? Who negotiated that deal and signed it? Who was it? Was it Obama?
|
Sam:
[1:44:59]
| It must have been. It must have been.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:01]
| It must have been, right?
|
Sam:
[1:45:01]
| Yeah. Or Biden? Biden?
|
Ivan:
[1:45:04]
| Biden?
|
Sam:
[1:45:05]
| Yeah. No. Or, you know, it was probably Jimmy Carter. You know, he just.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:09]
| Ah, it was Jimmy. Yeah. Yeah. Just blame it on Jimmy.
|
Sam:
[1:45:12]
| No, it was Donald Trump.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:14]
| It was Trump himself. It's like, like, what the fuck, man? We already renegotiated this fucking deal because you wanted it. We set down, we did it. And now you're like shitting all over your own fucking deal.
|
Sam:
[1:45:27]
| And so Mexico agreed to send 10,000 troops to the border that they were- Now.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:32]
| Sam!
|
Sam:
[1:45:33]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:34]
| You know, was that, you know, absolutely came out of the blue, right? Nobody expected them to send those troops over there, right?
|
Sam:
[1:45:42]
| They'd been doing that for years. You know, like, off and on i gather the numbers fluctuate but generally speaking they have 10 000 plus people at the border doing that kind of work anyway they'd done it they'd most recently ramped up requests because of the biden administration asked them to in some way and yeah so yeah that it's unclear to me whether they're even sending anyone new to the border right like at this point They're just doing what they were doing. And Canada agreed to spend, what was it, $1.3 billion or something on fentanyl or something?
|
Ivan:
[1:46:22]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some system to interdict the stuff coming through the Canadian border now.
|
Sam:
[1:46:27]
| Which, by the way...
|
Ivan:
[1:46:29]
| Was a deal that they negotiated with the Biden administration?
|
Sam:
[1:46:32]
| Oh, yeah. And they actually announced it fully in December. They just repeated it to Donald Trump. that they were going to do that and by the way the fentanyl thing apparently the actual volume of fentanyl through the northern border is tiny anyway nothing you know nothing um so both so all three of these columbia canada and mexico basically agreed to do things they were doing anyway, and got the tariff threat removed or at least delayed. And in at least the Colombian case, they got the Donald Trump administration to back down on something else as well. Now, here's the thing, though. This is once again one of those things that Donald Trump is a master of declaring victory off nothing.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:26]
| Correct.
|
Sam:
[1:47:27]
| And depending how closely you're paying attention and which news sources you're paying attention to, like, you may hear what we just talked about, or you may just hear Donald Trump won and they backed down.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:43]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:47:43]
| And that's all you hear. Yeah. Donald Trump threatened them, and they backed down, and Donald Trump won. Tariffs are working.
|
Ivan:
[1:47:53]
| Yeah. That's what they said. Tariffs are working.
|
Sam:
[1:47:55]
| And I suspect that a huge proportion of the American population and an even bigger proportion of Trump voters, all they heard is Donald Trump won.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:10]
| I'm pretty sure as well.
|
Sam:
[1:48:13]
| And so in the end, he gets what he wants, like, because this is performative. This is transactional. And in this case, the transaction is essentially imaginary, but he gets a win out of it anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:27]
| Yeah, I know.
|
Sam:
[1:48:30]
| And meanwhile, with China, by the way, the tariffs went into force with China. And the biggest part that everyone was most worried about, that they were like, this is going to change the dynamics of Chinese commerce in the United States dramatically, is that it would apply to everything. Whereas previously there had been an exemption for things under $800.
|
Ivan:
[1:48:52]
| And this is an exemption that occurs to, like, it's not just with China. There is what they call the minimus.
|
Sam:
[1:49:01]
| Basically.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:02]
| Yeah, the minimus. It's a minimus. It's of small value, basically, that those kind of shipments were exempt from customs, you know, tariffs, etc. and so forth.
|
Sam:
[1:49:14]
| And the thing is that whole businesses that have been built on this.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:17]
| Like exactly, Tambu and whatever, they've been building precisely on this.
|
Sam:
[1:49:22]
| Where they're shipping low value items and selling them cheap in the U.S. And so like when when the Chinese sanctions sanctions tariffs initially did go into effect, everyone was like, oh, crap, this is going to kill all of those businesses. This is going to.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:40]
| And it would have because it would have added a lot of like process and cost to every shipment. It just would have I mean, it just would have made it far more complicated because they're shipping directly from China.
|
Sam:
[1:49:52]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:53]
| And so the thing is that then every one of these would have had to have a customs clearance form and pay duties and taxes and have to be cleared from customs for every single one of these like tiny shipments. It was just would have been a crazy backlog. But now, you know. Trump, for whatever reason, has undone that undid it. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:50:12]
| Yeah. He put the exemption back in place.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:15]
| I'm going to, you know, you want me to take a wild guess? That's probably not that wild.
|
Sam:
[1:50:19]
| What's that?
|
Ivan:
[1:50:20]
| I wonder where the money got to him that they, that whoever in Temu went and like bought, I don't know how much DJT, how many hotel rooms or what kind of like coin or Trump coin or whatever the fuck that they went and they just decided to go and like spend a few hundred million.
|
Sam:
[1:50:39]
| Because unlike the other three that we talked about, there's no public concession from China, even a fake concession.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:48]
| Even a fake concession. There's just got dropped.
|
Sam:
[1:50:51]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:51]
| Look, by the way, Venezuela the other day with now, of course, all the Venezuelans like up in arms with like the fact that, you know, they voted for him and all of a sudden he said, fuck your family. We're going to deport him anyway, because everything's fine in Venezuela. Look, some oil guy paid off, must have made some nice payoff to him. There was a Mar-a-Lago guy that somehow got all of a sudden to send Marco over there. Now we're friendly with Maduro and now we're buying oil. And, you know, it's all of a sudden that I'm like, OK, you know, look, I mean, this is another one where it's very obvious that there is some payoff somewhere for this to happen. But, you know, is the Justice Department going to go to investigate?
|
Sam:
[1:51:33]
| Oh, you know, not only not only is the Justice Department obviously not going to in in investigate Donald Trump, but one of the areas that they have reportedly essentially shut down the two there's two. One, the group within the Justice Department slash FBI that was dedicated towards, like, FARA violations and, you know, international agents, international influence, whatever, they're just shutting down that group. And just generally speaking, they're also apparently significantly reducing the folks that do public corruption in general. Because, like, why would you want to investigate that? They're talking to Eric Adams in New York about potentially, like, dropping that.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:18]
| Yeah, I know. I did hear that. They're going to drop it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:52:22]
| And here's the thing. People are like, well, why would he do that? Eric Adams is a Democrat. Yeah, but you know.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:27]
| Criminals are his friends.
|
Sam:
[1:52:29]
| Exactly. Because the idea in general that there should be restrictions on what politicians want. What kind of deals politicians could do in exchange for their actions is anathema in general.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:45]
| Totally anathema.
|
Sam:
[1:52:46]
| Because, of course, that's what you want to do.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:48]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:52:49]
| That's just how business is done.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:51]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:52:52]
| You know, now, do we have any proof of these specific briberies that we're saying? No, of course not. But is it plausible? Of course it is.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:02]
| I mean, is it plausible? It's just plausible. It's probable. What are you talking about? What do you mean plausible? It's, I mean, nothing else explains this shit.
|
Sam:
[1:53:16]
| The one other thing to mention on tariffs that came out in the last couple of days is the Trump administration is preparing global reciprocal tariffs, which basically, as I got the wrong one, but I pointed out on our Commudgence Course Slack that this was right out of a Tom Clancy novel as well. way or not yeah i said some of all fears yvonne says it was debt of honor you know i you know it's been like 30 years since i read any of those books it has been.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:47]
| 30 years yes since we read that book yes.
|
Sam:
[1:53:49]
| But but anyway like no the basic notion here is that if any country has a tariff on american goods we put exactly the same tariff on their goods and here.
|
Ivan:
[1:54:00]
| Here it is let me read it because I looked up the plot summary from Debt of Honor, 1994, Tom Clancy novel. Japanese industrialist Raizo Yamada has been plotting to bring back his country to position of greatness for years, partly as revenge for the death of his family at the hands of American forces invading the island of Saipan during World War II. Then there is, it says here, there was some incident with a car accident, faulty gas tanks made in Japan. The incident leads to the swift passage of a law allowing the U.S. to mirror trade practices. of the countries for which it imports goods, cutting off the American export market upon which Japanese economy depends. So there's your, yeah. So that was the initial plot point of the movie.
|
Sam:
[1:54:46]
| Okay, I will also add before we- I mean.
|
Ivan:
[1:54:49]
| There's no movie on Dead of Honor, it's just the book.
|
Sam:
[1:54:51]
| Right, right, the book, the book. I will add though, since we are talking about fictional things related to this, people have also been pointing out The opening crawl to Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace, is the following. turmoil has engulfed the galactic republic the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute hey.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:15]
| But you know that was all bullshit i mean who the hell would go to you know get get into a tiff over you know the taxation of traders what are you talking about sam.
|
Sam:
[1:55:24]
| Yes anyway anyway so the the reciprocal tariffs actually like initially it's like oh well that That might kind of make sense. But like the reality is here, this is another one of these things that is probably going to work out the same way that we're talking about Canada and Mexico and Colombia, which the default will be reciprocal trade, reciprocal tariffs everywhere. But then there will be all sorts of exceptions made. It'll be Swiss cheese based on like what Donald Trump thinks he can get transactionally out of all these different countries, which is what we, like Yvonne and I, we talked like before the inauguration that the thing to watch with tariffs is not the tariffs themselves. It is what are the loopholes in the tariffs and what are the exceptions? Because that's where the deals will get made.
|
Ivan:
[1:56:17]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:56:18]
| And in this case also, like, I think we said this before too, but like, if any of these actually go through and stay through. They'll be damaging, they'll be inflationary, all of that kind of stuff. But Trump's game is absolutely clear now. I think it was clear before, but it's absolutely clear now. It's threatened the tariff, get some sort of win out of it. And I say win, not real concession because of what we talked about before. Like in some of these cases, yeah, they say they're doing something, but it's something that we were doing anyway. So it's only a PR win. Maybe in some cases he'll get something real out of it too, based on the threat. But the key is the threat of the tariff and then try to get a win out of it without ever actually putting the tariffs in place for any period of time that matter.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:10]
| Which is, by the way, it's a moat, which is why we're talking about a whole bunch of the changes.
|
Sam:
[1:57:14]
| Although, to be fair, in his first term, he put on a bunch of tariffs to China that stayed on.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:19]
| That stayed, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:57:20]
| That did cause some damage.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:21]
| They never, and they never got, there were some tariffs that never were.
|
Sam:
[1:57:25]
| I mean, he had to do these farm subsidies to make up for the losses that farmers got due to those tariffs. And so it's quite possible that in some of these cases, the countries will call the bluff, not do anything. The tariffs will go into effect and stay in effect. And then we will see some of these negative consequences of tariffs. But I suspect the international world learns quickly. And they are remembering how to do business from Donald Trump from what they found out last time, which is you flatter him, you give him PR wins. They don't have to be real wins. You know, maybe in certain cases you give him a real win, but you basically give him PR wins and you flatter him and you talk about how he's incredible and amazing and blah, blah, blah. And you can figure out a way to get through it without having the negative consequences actually hit. So, okay, that's it. We're done. We're over time. But I wanted to talk about tariffs because they're so interesting. You know?
|
Ivan:
[1:58:30]
| Tariffs. Woo! Woo! Woo!
|
Sam:
[1:58:35]
| Yeah. And if you want a primer on tariffs, you know the one source, of course, to go to. Right, Yvonne?
|
Ivan:
[1:58:44]
| I go, what?
|
Sam:
[1:58:45]
| If you want to learn more about tariffs, there's only one thing to do.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:50]
| Um, um.
|
Sam:
[1:58:52]
| You're not going to get it. Rewatch Ferris Mueller's Day Off.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:55]
| Oh! Yes! Of course!
|
Sam:
[1:58:58]
| To get the lecture on the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.
|
Ivan:
[1:59:01]
| Tariffs by fucking what's his name, Ben Stein, who's also a MAGA asshole.
|
Sam:
[1:59:06]
| Yes, there you go. So go re-watch that. Okay, we're done here. Thanks everybody. Oh, wait. Should I say this? Go to our website, curmudgeons-quarter.com All the stuff, the transcripts, how to contact us, Patreon, all that stuff. If you give us money at Patreon, we will eventually give you stuff, even though I'm slow and it takes me forever. Sorry, guys. And yeah, and $2 a month or more, or if you ask us, we'll invite you to a convention score of Slack, where Yvonne and I and others are chatting throughout the week. Yvonne, do you got anything from the Slack this time?
|
Ivan:
[1:59:44]
| Do I have... Jesus, I forgot. Hang on, hang on. There's gotta be something here. Uh... da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Oh, yes. A brilliant one. Pete Hack says Venmo got leaked, and now people are flooding him with payment requests. It's, you know, so the one thing about Venmo, which I realized early on.
|
Sam:
[2:00:08]
| It's by default, everything you do is public.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:10]
| Right. And I very quickly, immediately, I saw this stream. I'm like, fuck this shit. I don't want everybody to know what the fuck I'm doing with my money. Oh, I'm paying whatever I want, and I shut that shit off. But apparently, Pete Hack said being the.
|
Sam:
[2:00:23]
| I don't use it very often, but every time I do, I'm like, okay, everybody's gonna see that i just gave you know my daughter thirty dollars i just gave my daughter thirty dollars to buy my son dinner you know or whatever okay.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:37]
| All right okay all right you know at least it's not hookers that you're paying so that's good good news okay so pete hack says.
|
Sam:
[2:00:43]
| Venmo you say that but that was part of the evidence but against matt gates was his venmo payment Venmo.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:53]
| Why am I not surprised? You know.
|
Sam:
[2:00:55]
| Okay. Go ahead.
|
Ivan:
[2:00:57]
| And now people are flooding him with payment requests. It's a remind button for me combined with the emotional damage. So this guy pending. You requested $45,000 from Pete Haxit. Why? Emotional damage. There you go. So people have been flooding him with requests. I'm sure that he's probably changed his thing by now.
|
Sam:
[2:01:14]
| Probably.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:15]
| Yeah. That was just.
|
Sam:
[2:01:16]
| I would be more interested if he was actually like paying the people who asked them for money.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:21]
| Ah, well, that would be. Well, that would be interesting on me. So what are you telling me? I should send him a payment request?
|
Sam:
[2:01:28]
| See if he pays.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:29]
| I mean, I don't understand. You know, these people are cheap. I mean, only $45,000. I'm like, you know, what the fuck? That's it? I mean, if you're really going to hit him up, hit him for. Although, of course, I'm sure I think the limit on how much you can request. I was going to say, why don't you request a million dollars? What are you doing? I don't think you can Venmo. I don't think.
|
Sam:
[2:01:47]
| Well, and you know, Hegseth has some money, but he's not like, he's not Musk.
|
Ivan:
[2:01:52]
| Yeah, he's not Musk. Oh, well, damn.
|
Sam:
[2:01:55]
| Okay, we are done. Here comes the outro music. Thanks for listening, everybody. Tell your friends. Have a great week. Stay safe. We'll see you next time.
|
Ivan:
[2:02:03]
| Look at this Venmo feed. Look, I'm looking just before you go. Look, I just went in. I mean, this guy that I despise. I don't know who I am. I guess he has a contact. Tracy Lopez. This guy is a douchebag.
|
Sam:
[2:02:13]
| Oh, you're giving his name publicly, too.
|
Ivan:
[2:02:16]
| Oh, yeah. Fuck him. Whatever. He's a fucking asshole. You know, somehow he tipped an AA club, whatever the fuck that is. you know, you know, he did that on Venmo. Okay. For example, I got, let's see, what else? I got somebody paying for, you know, one guy paid his brother, another guy paid his brother, ginger grooming and tip for groomer. So I'm guessing they groomed her dog wings. I don't know. Basketball. I mean, I don't know, you know, but what else I'm looking at that one. I went because I'm like, I'm literally a guy I hate in his guts. And why the hell is he showing up on my fucking feed? Fuck him.
|
Sam:
[2:02:56]
| Okay. Okay, now can I say goodbye, Yvonne?
|
Ivan:
[2:02:59]
| Yes, you can say goodbye.
|
Sam:
[2:03:00]
| Okay. Stay safe, everybody. Have a great week. Tell your friends to listen to the show. We'll talk to you next time. Goodbye.
|
Ivan:
[2:03:08]
| Bye.
|
Sam:
[2:03:38]
| Thank you. Okay, hit and stop. See you later, Yvonne. Bye.
|
Ivan:
[2:03:44]
| Bye. Thank you.
| |
|
