Automated Transcript
Sam:
[0:00]
| Hello, this is Sam from the Future. We recorded this show Friday night, U.S. time. That would be Friday, June 19th? No, no, 20th. Friday, June 20th is when we recorded this show. And, well, before I got it out, there were a few news developments. Specifically, during this show, we talked a little bit about Donald Trump's statement that he was going to wait a couple weeks, potentially to figure out what to do about Iran and how, generally speaking, he has used this two-week time frame many, many times before to avoid making decisions. Well, Saturday we actually attacked Iran. Now, one report had it that, well, there was an angry call between Trump and Netanyahu and where Netanyahu said, we're not going to wait two weeks. We are going to attack ourselves if you don't do it yourself.
|
Sam:
[1:02]
| If the U.S. doesn't do it, we will, basically. And shortly after Donald Trump did the attack, which would sort of fit with what we also talked about on this show about, you know, he's always influenced by the last person who talks to him. However, there has also been reporting that the two-week thing this time around was completely a ruse, that the decision had already been made, that things were already underway. Given how this administration is known for truth-telling, I'm not sure I know what to believe. I mean, fundamentally, they had already reported that the plans were made.
|
Sam:
[1:44]
| Everything was ready to go and was just waiting on a final decision from Donald Trump to basically hit the go button. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're just trying to finagle the language to make it seem like Donald Trump wasn't flip-flopping all over the place on this thing. But on the other hand, who knows? Like, all of the players involved here are not particularly known for truth-telling. anyway there's a discussion later on in the show well in the show proper about about all of the iranian developments and about the two weeks that as i just said ended up not happening and various other things now that the attack has happened.
|
Sam:
[2:33]
| We'll see how things develop. It is still unclear, as I am recording this on Sunday evening U.S. time on the 22nd, you know, how effective the attack was, what was actually destroyed, what was not. There's one thing the Americans are saying, there's one thing the Iranians are saying, and again, we have no actors on this stage that are known for their truth-telling. So until or unless there's independent verification of something, who the hell knows? And of course, Iran is threatening retaliation. They're saying they're closing the Straits of Hormuz, all kinds of things. And so, whereas the U.S. administration seems to be saying, you know what? It's a one and done. We did this. Hopefully now there'll be peace. We shall see. Anyway, I will start the actual show we recorded in just a moment. I did have one other thing to say. For any of our listeners in the greater Seattle metropolitan area.
|
Sam:
[3:40]
| Yvonne's going to be in town June 30th through... I guess he's coming in late on the 29th and leaving on the 3rd, but basically the 30th, the 1st, and the 2nd, he's going to be around. And we're talking about doing a curmudgeon's Corner meetup. Those of you who are on the Slack regularly may already know about this because we're discussing it there. But for those of you who aren't on the Slack, if you are interested, most likely, although nothing's final, final, final yet, most likely we will do some sort of meetup the evening of Wednesday, July 2nd in Seattle somewhere. If you are interested in joining us, please go to curmudgeons-corner.com. All of the ways to contact us are listed there. Email, Facebook, Mastodon, right. But email us or whatever and let us know you're interested and we will put you on the list and make sure to let you know exactly where and when and all of that kind of stuff once that's decided. So if you are a regular listener and in the Seattle area let us know we'd love to we'd love to have you meet us and meet you if we haven't met you before and all of that i guess that's it i guess now that i've like spoken for a long time.
|
Sam:
[5:04]
| We can start the actual show here we go, Welcome to Curmudgeons Corner. It's Saturday, July 21st, 2025. Just after two UTCs, we're starting to record. I am Sam Minter. Yvonne Bo is here. Hello, Yvonne. Welcome back.
|
Ivan:
[5:45]
| Hi.
|
Sam:
[5:46]
| Are you excited to be back? Did you miss me last week?
|
Ivan:
[5:50]
| Yes. I don't understand what is it that you had going on I mean I you know the the it wound up that okay I could only do Thursday right you couldn't do it yeah.
|
Sam:
[6:03]
| You could do Thursday or Saturday I could only do Friday.
|
Ivan:
[6:07]
| So right no I couldn't do Saturday either but I could do Thursday but you couldn't do right but you couldn't do Friday you know you could only do Friday I.
|
Sam:
[6:16]
| Couldn't do thursday yeah i could only do friday and so we had ed you.
|
Ivan:
[6:21]
| Know that.
|
Sam:
[6:21]
| That was that was good ed ed uh ed was here ed had a good time we had a good time it was good.
|
Ivan:
[6:28]
| No but what did you have on thursday do you have another one of these do you have to show your face at some event again or something the.
|
Sam:
[6:36]
| Family went to a movie.
|
Ivan:
[6:37]
| Oh okay which yeah well.
|
Sam:
[6:41]
| I'm not going to talk about this today but we went.
|
Ivan:
[6:44]
| To the live action How.
|
Sam:
[6:46]
| To Train Your Dragon, the live action version.
|
Ivan:
[6:48]
| Yeah, you don't have to do a review.
|
Sam:
[6:50]
| I'm just wondering. And we went on opening day.
|
Ivan:
[6:53]
| Oh.
|
Sam:
[6:53]
| Like we were making a point of going on opening day.
|
Ivan:
[6:56]
| You did the opening day.
|
Sam:
[6:57]
| We did not wear costumes, though.
|
Ivan:
[6:59]
| Ah, that's good.
|
Sam:
[7:01]
| Well, we probably should have. It would have been good. You know, we could have.
|
Ivan:
[7:05]
| Like... You know, dress up as a dragon?
|
Sam:
[7:08]
| Or a viking. Or both.
|
Ivan:
[7:10]
| Viking.
|
Sam:
[7:11]
| You know?
|
Ivan:
[7:12]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[7:12]
| But no, I will save a full review for when we do that in order, but my short thumbs up, very thumbs up, it was a big thumbs up for the original animated version, but also a big thumbs up for the live action version. Okay, that's good. it was a good remake but you know speaking of speaking of movies though i i i told ed last week i had calculated that at the rate i am watching these things and finishing things i will never catch up if i only mention one a week so i have to do two so when it gets to be my part of the But first, I will do two movies. But, you know, I was going to say I'll bring back the timer for that. But I forgot to, like, bring the timer into the room.
|
Ivan:
[8:05]
| I have a timer here.
|
Sam:
[8:07]
| Well, then you can be the one to, like, buzz me out.
|
Ivan:
[8:10]
| Hold on.
|
Sam:
[8:10]
| I mean, I've got multiple timers. I just don't have them within arm's reach of where I am right now.
|
Ivan:
[8:15]
| Right here, which is one that you sent me. It's right here.
|
Sam:
[8:18]
| Oh, yeah, yeah. I really enjoyed that particular timer, but Alex broke it.
|
Ivan:
[8:24]
| You know, I have now, after I was with a colleague from work this week, who has been at the company only one year, also has a MacBook Pro. And they explained to me how they've already broken the keyboard. And I'm like, how?
|
Sam:
[8:44]
| Well, as you know, I already broke my screen and had to have it fixed under AppleCare already. It's less than...
|
Ivan:
[8:53]
| No, it's about a year old now.
|
Sam:
[8:54]
| It's about a year old. I mean, they had about six months in, I broke the screen.
|
Ivan:
[8:59]
| So, so apparently the way that they did it was, you know, okay. So they, they're in sales just like me. We have a, you know, similar role. They just cover a different, you know, thing. But, but, you know, we're, you know, we're, I have the same manager and I guess, you know, they're travel, whatever. You know, as you know, I'm, I'm a neat freak. Okay.
|
Sam:
[9:22]
| Yes. Yes, you are.
|
Ivan:
[9:23]
| All right.
|
Sam:
[9:24]
| That's a fact.
|
Ivan:
[9:25]
| Okay. Well, neither is she. And as maybe she's not like, I've been to her house. I, listen, this is a crazier part of the story. Look, I went to her house because one day we were supposed to meet for dinner. My boss was in town there. We're supposed to meet for dinner.
|
Sam:
[9:43]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[9:43]
| She's a single mom. Okay. Her son was at the house. She was alone at the house. She was just going to meet us. Called her on the phone. Hey, what time are we meeting? And something didn't sound right. Honestly, she sounded delirious. Okay?
|
Sam:
[10:00]
| That's not good. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[10:01]
| Yeah. I mean, she sounded... As something told me, and I've only met her for like six months, but something sounded way off, beyond the norm. Okay. And she lives in Puerto Rico. And I'm like, okay, are you okay? And she was incoherent. I had her home address. I said, I'm going to your house right now. I found her delirious on the bed. She really had no clue. She had been vomiting nonstop. And she, and I'm like, you know, look, I'm, you know, much faster was me calling an ambulance, whatever shit show. I'm like, look, here, come on. I'm taking you to the hospital. I loaded up in the car. And so I took her to the hospital and not sure what virus she had. But what happened is that with her fever and whatever, she got super dehydrated and was just, you know, she was just, she just wasn't. she doesn't even remember that I went and I got her out of her room and took her to the car. You had no idea.
|
Ivan:
[11:10]
| That's how bad she had been. So I've been to her house. So she's not as messy as you, but she's not as a compulsive neat freak as I am. Okay? Alright? That's a reality, but her place is pretty decently clean. Okay? But it's not like me. So, I don't know. You know, she's traveling. You eat, like you buy a Starbucks or whatever. Bah, bah, bah. She's working on the keyboard she got the keyboard really dirty okay oh yeah i.
|
Sam:
[11:37]
| Remember we're now back to the broken computer.
|
Ivan:
[11:39]
| Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so so i've forgotten what the destination of all that explaining that what that i know that she's i've been to your house i've been to her house i know she's not as clean freak as i am but she's she's cleaner than you she's in the middle of but she's in the middle of uh of us okay in that range so she's probably.
|
Sam:
[11:58]
| Right like at normal.
|
Ivan:
[11:59]
| Yeah yeah yeah yeah she's like at normal okay she's not at me level she's like nor you know yeah she's normal but she's normal okay so she goes and tells me well i decided i need to clean the keyboard because it was getting kind of sticky okay right yeah so she she went and she pulled out all the keys which i do not wreck okay once again i said what are you doing look i i this is not a good idea. Do not pull out the fucking keys. Okay? Just don't do that. Well, she managed to put them all back except one of the keys, which she broke.
|
Sam:
[12:36]
| Okay. Yes.
|
Ivan:
[12:38]
| All right? Which is what usually happens with pulling apart all the fucking keys. It's just, you know, the standard thing.
|
Ivan:
[12:51]
| So anyway, she broke the keyboard Okay? She broke the damn keyboard I just, you know, look I urge people Listen, if you're going to clean the damn keyboard Okay? Whatever you do Try to avoid Removing the keys Okay? That always never works Out well It just, you know, one of them will never go back The way that, It's supposed to it's just you know that that will it just so so avoid that at all costs okay i you know the thing is she's had a one-year-old macbook she's got a red keyboard mine is about to turn four years old, you know it looks new you know i i am i did i did uh uh you know i i did i am getting a replacement this year because apparently our life cycle is four years so i i am kind of happy about about getting that because i still have an intel macbook pro and you know i i did i do want to get you know apple silicon laptops especially since they're dropping support of a lot of those now they're being pretty aggressive about you know fuck you know fuck this until hardware we're not you know we're not gonna keep keep supporting any yeah we're not we're not supporting this shit for well i'll.
|
Sam:
[14:15]
| I'll tell you i'll tell you two things along your repair stories first of all i know the time i talked about it more extensively was when yvonne gpt was on the show like the reason i my screen on my laptop broke.
|
Ivan:
[14:30]
| Is is.
|
Sam:
[14:31]
| I closed it with a needle in there.
|
Ivan:
[14:34]
| A needle?
|
Sam:
[14:35]
| I don't know where the needle came from. I don't know, like...
|
Ivan:
[14:38]
| What the fuck do you get a needle from? The hell? You don't sew? What the hell do you get a needle?
|
Sam:
[14:43]
| Well, and actually, it was more like... It was like the kind of straight pin. It wasn't a needle. It was like a straight pin of the kind that you pin... That come, like, when you buy a new dress shirt. And they come pinned together.
|
Ivan:
[14:57]
| Okay. All right. So one of those dress pins. Okay. So one of those clothes.
|
Sam:
[15:00]
| Now, of course...
|
Ivan:
[15:01]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah.
|
Sam:
[15:01]
| Of course, it had been, like... It's actually not that long since I'd bought one of those because I bought one like in January.
|
Ivan:
[15:09]
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it may have been from that somehow.
|
Sam:
[15:11]
| It may have been from that, but somehow it got in there. I closed the laptop with that like sitting on the keyboard or something and it hit the screen and it cracked. So that's how I broke my laptop keyboard and or not the keyboard, I screened. And luckily, Apple care. and and i will say the other thing is right before this show i i had for for the day i i i've been alex has been using my laptop while i'm away at work he's doing various projects on it so it had been downstairs well i i we had taken it away and i brought it back so i was setting it back up at my docked location. And even though I'm using it docked, I did open it up and I noticed it did have crumbs. There was like food stuck to the screen of some sort. So yes, this is the kind of thing that probably does not happen in your household.
|
Ivan:
[16:15]
| Look, I will say that my, let me see, I'm trying to figure out how old these keyboards are. Okay, they're both very old. Okay, let's see. Yeah, they don't really have... They're a little bit... They... These are got to be at least five years old, six, actually seven. I don't think I've cleaned. And also, I don't think I've cleaned them in a long time. And they're fine. You know, I mean, I could stay on the cleaning, but it's not like it's not. I'm not I'm not I'm not rushing to to get them cleaned at this point. Also, another thing I discovered this week, aside from the fact that, you know, a lot of people are clumsy with their computers. A very interesting factoid. for whatever reason or scrolling through the TV and Matlock was on TV the original.
|
Sam:
[17:08]
| Or the new one.
|
Ivan:
[17:08]
| The original because there is a new one, because there is the new one and all of a sudden I saw that the original was on TV and I was I had a very long week okay I must admit I started today I had an 8, there's nothing worse than an 8am meeting and I had several of them this week. 8 a.m.
|
Sam:
[17:31]
| Fucking meetings.
|
Ivan:
[17:32]
| 8 a.m. meetings are the worst.
|
Sam:
[17:35]
| Definitely.
|
Ivan:
[17:38]
| I mean, I'm just... You know, I do get to them functional, but it takes a Herculean effort.
|
Sam:
[17:49]
| Herculean? Is that how you say it?
|
Ivan:
[17:52]
| I think so. Hercules? Herculean?
|
Sam:
[17:55]
| Herculean, maybe?
|
Ivan:
[17:56]
| Herculean? Herculean?
|
Sam:
[17:59]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[18:00]
| Yeah. Yeah. Herculean effort to be, you know, composed for a fucking meeting to discuss the migration of a core banking application, you know, and the necessary, you know.
|
Sam:
[18:15]
| So scintillating conversation.
|
Ivan:
[18:17]
| Yeah. Not exactly. Yeah. And complex, you know, because we're talking about, you know. how much storage capacity and services and what things and, you know, all the different subcomponents and stuff and security and shit. So it's not, you know, this isn't some fluffy conversation. Okay. All right. And so, damn it, I got to be this fucking call to talk about this at eight in the fucking morning. And, you know, so the day at four o'clock, I was already kind of wiped out. I decided to just lay down and watch some TV because we were going to go out in there. So I go and I put on, put on Matlock and I'm looking at, I'm looking at Andy Griffith. Okay. Who's, who's Matlock and, uh, in the series. The series was filmed. Filming began in 1985 around there. I'm looking at how old is angry Griffith when he is on that show. I don't know if you remember the image and I'll send you an image of how Andy Griffith looked because I took a picture off the TV and, and I am like, okay, so I mean, I'll send you the picture on your messages. How old does that guy look to you in that picture? I just say, I mean, what do you think?
|
Sam:
[19:30]
| Well, we have to index for the 80s because people listen.
|
Ivan:
[19:33]
| To just just whatever. I'm not. No, no, no.
|
Sam:
[19:36]
| If this was today.
|
Ivan:
[19:38]
| How old does that guy look to you?
|
Sam:
[19:39]
| If I saw this person on the street today, I would guess early 70s.
|
Ivan:
[19:45]
| Early 70s, right?
|
Sam:
[19:46]
| But given this was the 1980s, I would guess he's younger than us.
|
Ivan:
[19:52]
| He's not younger than us. Okay. He's not younger than us.
|
Sam:
[19:56]
| So he's late 50s.
|
Ivan:
[19:57]
| Yes. He's 59. So I sent this picture to my brother, my two brothers, one who was already 60 and the other one who was about to turn 58 this week. And I said, guys, okay, let me tell you something. This, this guy here is your age. And they're both like, oh, what the fuck?
|
Sam:
[20:19]
| Well, this is something that people have pointed out a lot when looking at media from decades ago, is that how, you know, if you compare a given age between TV shows in the 80s and how people look today, they look older, you know? And now I've seen a couple of people do experiments where they basically adapted, like they took what they look like now, but then did their hair and outfit and just styling in an 80s style. and they did instantly look older now be so part of it is just the cultural association of the time but there does seem to also just be a thing with and this depends highly on, where you are socioeconomically and all kinds of other issues but people being healthier longer and there is there are.
|
Ivan:
[21:30]
| Two well there is a big factor that I know impacted a lot of those people, in their 50s at that time. It was the smoking.
|
Sam:
[21:40]
| Oh, yes. That was big.
|
Ivan:
[21:42]
| The smoking was huge.
|
Sam:
[21:44]
| And even for non-smokers, because it was freaking everywhere. You could not escape it.
|
Ivan:
[21:49]
| You could not escape the smoking. The damn smoking. Look, I mean, smoking aged people drastically, quickly. Smoking has been shown to give people heart disease, high blood pressure, all of these damn things. And not just that, It made people's faces age. I mean, it has been shown that people that were heavy smokers compared to the other, you know, smoke, their faces would age so much, so drastically compared to non-smokers. And that is just a factor. Look, I have a friend of mine that I knew over here who smoked so much until his 50s. And then he quit smoking. And I saw him three or four years later after he quit smoking. and he hadn't smoked for three or four years, he looked like he had lost 10 years. He looked 10 years younger. It was crazy. And I do think that one of the things that was such an impact to those people at that time was how much smoking happened back then.
|
Sam:
[22:51]
| Yeah, and I don't know exactly when the peak year was. Probably in the 70s, I would guess.
|
Ivan:
[22:57]
| Yes, I think so.
|
Sam:
[22:58]
| But the penetration of the percentage of the population that were regular smokers was insanely high. Like today it's unimaginable. I mean, people still smoke and people vape and people do other things and people smoke things other than tobacco. Yeah. So it's still out there by all means, but the percentage of people who don't, is higher, is, you know, most people don't anymore. And when they do, it's rarer, at least, within certain parts of the country, certain socioeconomic circles. Again, like if you go, this is one of those things where if you go to sort of the more blighted parts of the country, smoking rates are higher than they are in the richer parts as is drug use as is all kinds of things because you know for all kinds of reasons people turn to substances when other things in their lives aren't going right so the peak.
|
Ivan:
[24:06]
| For smoking was in the, around the 50s, 60s where it was over 40 you know it actually spiked, I see, from the 60s into the 70s into the mid 40s, okay?
|
Ivan:
[24:26]
| And then it started coming down, down, down, down. Until now, it's 11%. Okay? So it's down like 80% from where it was. But the one thing that you mentioned, you're right, because it wasn't just you smoking. If you, listen, if you socialized, you went out, say you only drank and you didn't smoke you go out to a bar back then dude if you were going into a cigarette chamber okay yes i mean i i would go out in the 80s and i remember when i went to the places i mean everything i wore just even when i i didn't smoke reeks of cigarettes the moment i came i i came home every night so yeah i mean you were in a in a cigarette chamber airplanes for god's sakes they're smoking on the damn airplanes, smoke on the airplanes, smoking at the offices, smoke. I mean, I mean, hell on TV. I was watching some old Johnny Carson shows where he was smoking. He was smoking in between. Like, you know, he would go and like sneak off to the side to grab a puff from a cigarette, you know, while he was recording the show live on TV. So, yeah, I mean, he was, you know, that's how prevalent it was back then. But yeah, I definitely, there is definitely, I have no doubt that that is one of the biggest reasons why people are around 50 years now look so much younger than they did back then.
|
Sam:
[25:54]
| Well, and like you said, even the 11% is... Unless you are one of the 11%, it's less visible, too.
|
Ivan:
[26:04]
| Right. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[26:05]
| I mean, even now compared to 10 years ago, like, I remember 10 years ago when I was coming in and out of buildings at work, there'd still be, like, you know, several people sitting there smoking near the entrance somewhere.
|
Ivan:
[26:22]
| Right. Now they won't even allow them near the entrance anymore. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[26:25]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[26:25]
| You're, like, banished.
|
Sam:
[26:26]
| Yeah. So like, you know, I, you don't just notice the presence all the time, unless you're one of the ones doing it yourself. I mean, I'm not going to say I haven't seen people smoking. I have within, you know, even at work, I saw someone smoking a cigarette and tossing it out before going in the building within the last week. But it's rare. It's much rarer.
|
Ivan:
[26:54]
| It used to be when I when I worked at an office in the late 90s, early 2000s, I mean, there was an entire I mean, I literally I had all these managers of smoke. I would go, OK, let's go. You know, we I mean, we were just a whole bunch of people outside standing, you know, smoking. I wasn't one of the smokers, but I had I work with two people directly most of the time. Both of them smoked. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to go outside with you to have a chit chat. I'm like, whatever, at least we're outside. I'm not inside a room like locked in, like sucking this. But yeah, you know, but that was like a typical thing.
|
Sam:
[27:29]
| Right. Yeah, no, definitely. I think that's part of it. And like I said, though, there are other factors, too. Like somebody like I keep going back to this experiment somebody did where they they, you know, they were pointing out the like there's a picture of like the golden girls or whatever with their ages next to it. Like they're they're all in their 50s, except one who was actually in their 40s. you know um and jesus christ and and and you know that whole show was about them being old and over the hill and like right yeah whatever but you know basically this person who was the same age just dressed up like older like dressed in the style of that they dressed in that show Oh, and yeah, they instantly look 10, 15 years older just from changing how they dressed and how they did their hair. You know, well, look, I mean, but I think you're absolutely right.
|
Ivan:
[28:29]
| You know, we got the Brimley cocoon line that we've talked about.
|
Sam:
[28:33]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[28:33]
| I mean, you know, look, Wolfram Brimley, for whatever reason, you know, was a he when he was in cocoon. how old was he 52 i think it was i look uh looking up the age hold on wilford brimley age oh shit okay he was 49 when he was cast sappy was 50 okay turning 50 during the filming i mean holy shit yes it's 49 years old holy shit man they lived a hard life back then let me tell you holy shit wow yes.
|
Sam:
[29:21]
| Anyway shall we move on.
|
Ivan:
[29:24]
| Yeah you know if any of you can't I can't notice that I'm stalling talking about potential World War III or other stuff or whatever, you know, chaos and whatever. It's just because I gotta be honest with you, I'm exhausted.
|
Sam:
[29:42]
| Well, I got two movies and you've got the timer in front of you. How much time are you going to give for each movie?
|
Ivan:
[29:47]
| All right. Ten minutes.
|
Sam:
[29:49]
| Ten minutes each?
|
Ivan:
[29:51]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[29:51]
| Or ten minutes total? Okay. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[29:53]
| I'll give you 15 minutes total. Okay. All right.
|
Sam:
[29:55]
| Here we go. No, give me, so seven and a half.
|
Ivan:
[29:58]
| I'll give you like seven and a half. Okay. So I'll go, I'll, I'll make the seven and a half. All right. And, uh, I think we're good. I think we're good. Yeah. Time. Yeah. I hear it.
|
Sam:
[30:07]
| Okay. Number one, which I watched on September 15th of last year, Godfather part three.
|
Ivan:
[30:15]
| Ah, the most hated one.
|
Sam:
[30:18]
| Except, I must say, it is hard to actually find the original Godfather Part 3 now, because they put out Godfather Coda, which was...
|
Ivan:
[30:30]
| Oh, yeah, it was a big... Yeah, I know.
|
Sam:
[30:34]
| They basically re-edited it. So Godfather Coda is the one I actually saw, which was released in 2020. Okay. Um, so I'll say like, so apparently there were, there's like three different versions. There's the original like theatrical release, which was when, on 1990, there was a director's cut or quote, final director's cut from 1991. And then Godfather Coda was in 2020. And it says the Wikipedia summary of the Coda one is for the film's 30th anniversary, recut titled The Godfather Coda, The Death of Michael Corleone, received a limited theatrical release, followed by digital and home releases. This version includes changes to the beginning and ending and some edited scenes and musical cues as a runtime of 158 minutes. He has said that the 2020 recut is the one that he and Puzo originally envisioned and that it vindicates its status in the Godfather trilogy as well as his daughter Sophia's performance. Both Pacino and Keaton gave their approval to the new cut, noting it is an improvement over the original theatrical release. So I have not seen the originals. I've only seen the Coda version.
|
Sam:
[31:55]
| And I know that this, as you alluded to, people sort of hated it compared to the others. I thought it was fine. I give it a thumbs up. I liked it, you know, fine. And it was, you know, it was, it was nominated, not the Coda version, but the original was nominated for best picture. You know, it was a, you know, it was a good movie, you know?
|
Ivan:
[32:19]
| I thought so too. I listened. I thought that the original version without that, that re-edited, I've watched both, was good too. I think the people, I, a lot of the shit that Coppola got was about this daughter being in the movie.
|
Sam:
[32:35]
| Mm-hmm.
|
Ivan:
[32:36]
| I thought she did fine and she's shown herself to be actually be a very good, director in her own completely standing on her own so she's shown herself that she's not she's not a hack yeah, Some people criticized Andy Garcia on the movie, which I actually thought he did a really good job in the movie.
|
Sam:
[32:56]
| I'm not going to remember who is who, but yeah.
|
Ivan:
[32:59]
| He is, what's his name, Corleone's nephew, the one that married, the one that wound up to marry his daughter.
|
Sam:
[33:08]
| So just to hit it real quick before we run out of time, plot-wise, this is the last of the three Godfather movies. Apparently, they had thought about a sequel, but Godfather 4 never happened. There was a book that came out of that. But, you know, and it basically, like with, they did some of this in the other movies too, but it's the later, older Michael Corleone, but with lots of flashbacks to the past as well.
|
Ivan:
[33:38]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[33:39]
| You know, going back to when his family was still in Italy, when they first came over to the States, et cetera. And this one has like a whole part of the plot about, you know, interfering with papal succession, you know, as well.
|
Ivan:
[33:58]
| Which, by the way, here's the interesting thing about that part.
|
Sam:
[34:02]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[34:03]
| Very similar to what happened recently, some of the events, okay, specifically.
|
Sam:
[34:09]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[34:10]
| Specifically related to financial fraud in the immobiliaria, the company, you know, this holding that the Vatican has, where there was one person that recently the Pope wrote that he removed precisely for that, okay, before he died, okay? So I was like, whoa, what the hell? This is, you know, what I heard about that happening.
|
Sam:
[34:41]
| Well, this also just in the movie, too, it's also inspired by real events from earlier, too. There was conspiracy around the death of Pope John Paul I.
|
Ivan:
[34:56]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[34:56]
| You remember, only lasted like a month in office. A month.
|
Ivan:
[35:00]
| Yes. And there was a conspiracy that he was murdered.
|
Sam:
[35:02]
| And there was a banking scandal there, too.
|
Ivan:
[35:04]
| And there was a banking scandal, yes.
|
Sam:
[35:06]
| And so, yeah. Anyway, I liked the movie. I enjoyed it. I understand they changed a few things around. And I remember, after watching it, reading a little bit about the specific changes they made. But, you know, which I guess were to try to clarify some things and to, you know, slightly change the nature of the very ending, which I won't give away, but you know, I liked all three movies, to be honest. Like, you know, I enjoyed the whole series. Alex watched them with me. He did not enjoy them so much. But, you know, whatever. I thought they were good. I enjoyed them. They deserve their reputation as an important film series that, you know, now if I had to pick, like, you know, would three be my number one? not probably not but i i thought they were a good trilogy it it's fine as a series like you know you know there's some where you feel like okay they're just milking it they're just milking it like you mentioned a few weeks ago like fast and furious 27 or whatever the hell they're on now and they're i i going into space and stuff you know but yeah you know we we didn't have like.
|
Ivan:
[36:30]
| Oh i don't think they.
|
Sam:
[36:32]
| Probably did.
|
Ivan:
[36:33]
| Go into space right yeah.
|
Sam:
[36:34]
| Godfather three did not involve any involve anybody going to space or you know on to the ocean gate submersible or anything like that you know you know but you know it was uh but yeah no enjoyable trilogy is my seven and a half minutes up i'm like vamping a little bit you're.
|
Ivan:
[36:54]
| Like you're have a minute left.
|
Sam:
[36:57]
| I have a minute left. So anything else to say? I mean, I don't know. Like, I enjoyed it. It was a long time ago.
|
Ivan:
[37:07]
| So I don't remember all the details. If we don't have, let's go to the next one. We'll save some time, and we'll go, you know, that way. Okay, so let's go to the next one. I'll give you the seven and a half minutes back. We're back here. Okay, so let's go to the next one. Okay.
|
Sam:
[37:17]
| Okay, the next one. Watched on September 19th, 2024, just a few days later. The Princess and the Frog from 2010. it's a Disney animated thing, I'm giving it another thumbs up I really enjoyed it it's from 2009 it was, set in New Orleans in the 1920s there's a waitress who wants to someday own a restaurant and you may guess from the title The Princess and the Frog she meets a you know, she meets a frog, who actually in fact was a prince who was turned into a frog by some magical spell, and and adventures ensue and uh it's a musical a few songs a few good songs it it tugs at your heartstrings at all the right times you know there's a there's a scene where you know no spoilers but something happens to a character and you like you want to cry it's all emotional and And, you know, there's, you know, look, it's a Disney cartoon. So it's all the things you would expect of that. It's emotional at the right times. There's sort of adventure sequences. There's comedy.
|
Sam:
[38:37]
| It's a fun movie. It's just plain fun movie. It won. Did it win or was just nominated? It was nominated for Best Animated Feature that year.
|
Sam:
[38:50]
| Big thumbs up. I enjoyed it. And it is one of those things that it's a family movie, not a kid's movie. So, you know, that you really do have the two types. Sometimes you have movies that are really, really aimed at like younger kids of a certain age and adults have, you know, sort of suffer through it. This is one that's good for the whole family as, as most Disney movies are, you know and yeah like i'm not gonna have a lot i'm not gonna use the whole seven and a half minutes of on this one either have you seen this one no i haven't seen it it's it's worth seeing, and it you know and like i said it's good for adults but like if you have kids kids will like the movie too you know it's and it was also i should say it was well known this was the first disney princess who was black and so at the time oh my god yeah.
|
Ivan:
[39:49]
| I'm just jeez yeah.
|
Sam:
[39:51]
| You know i mean it was 2009 it was you know it's about freaking time you know disney had been around a while by 2009 you know but you know but you know still this is the kind of thing that you know how even today you had obama and you had.
|
Ivan:
[40:07]
| A black princess i mean jesus christ, You know, now you know what we have, MAGA.
|
Sam:
[40:11]
| I mean, even now, I mentioned I saw the live-action How to Train Your Dragon. There was controversy because the female lead in Animated was like, you know, a blonde Viking, right? But they cast a black actress in that role for the live-action remake. And so there was a lot of controversy when they first announced that casting.
|
Sam:
[40:37]
| She was excellent, by the way. She did a great job. She inhabited the character. It went, you know, anybody who's bitching about it, there is absolutely no reason other than racism. You know, it's, and yeah, but that's, that was like the cast, the movie came out this year, but the casting was announced like a year ago or more. and there were people complaining about it the whole you know oh they're going woke and blah blah blah oh give me a fucking break you know it's and like princess and the frog by the way you know is also like you know it leans into sort of new orleans culture and the fact that she's black is relevant to that, you know, you know, in the 1920s and, you know, the, the sort of dynamics of 1920s, Louisiana and such. And it would, the movie would have a different character if she wasn't, you know, and, but whereas the, the, the dragon movie, it really didn't make any difference, but there were all kinds of people going, you can't do that. Vikings were white.
|
Sam:
[41:52]
| And you know the straight up answer to that in a movie like How to Train Your Dragon is you know what else? talking about a movie with a fucking dragon exactly Vikings didn't ride dragons either Jesus.
|
Ivan:
[42:06]
| Fucking Christ you idiots, God almighty.
|
Sam:
[42:12]
| Yeah. So.
|
Ivan:
[42:14]
| Oh, we need the historical accuracy for a movie that involves a fucking dragon.
|
Sam:
[42:22]
| Yes. Yes. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[42:30]
| I'm checking my list. So we got two minutes on this. I'm checking my list of Fast and the Furious movies. Okay.
|
Sam:
[42:36]
| You did talk about this only a few weeks ago, but go ahead.
|
Ivan:
[42:39]
| Yes, but I'm looking through the list, okay? By the way, they didn't go to space, okay?
|
Sam:
[42:45]
| Let me correct that.
|
Ivan:
[42:46]
| I exaggerated a little bit about that. They did go to Japan. One thing I can see.
|
Sam:
[42:52]
| Well, that's like space, isn't it?
|
Ivan:
[42:54]
| I mean, kind of. I mean, if you've been to Tokyo, it looks like you're out of space, you know? So it's very modern. So let's see. So the first one we'll call it.
|
Sam:
[43:04]
| But look, James Bond went to space decades ago.
|
Ivan:
[43:07]
| J-Spot was to space multiple times. Okay, Moonraker, okay, you know, where they did the whole thing where apparently you could launch a shuttle attached to the 747, which is completely, you know, had a lot of holes in the plot.
|
Sam:
[43:22]
| But still, anyway, Fast and Furious did not go to that.
|
Ivan:
[43:25]
| The first one was the Fast and the Furious.
|
Sam:
[43:29]
| Right, right.
|
Ivan:
[43:30]
| Okay, the. It's important.
|
Sam:
[43:32]
| The, yes.
|
Ivan:
[43:32]
| Because the second one was too fast and too furious. then you had the Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift and then you had Fast and Furious not the Fast and Furious oh right this is why I made sure to mention that there was a the Fast and Furious and then there was a Fast and Furious okay no the okay very important then you went into Fast 5, then you went into Fast and Furious 6 then you went into Furious 7 get rid of the fast timer went off, there you go so, the fate of the Furious not faster anymore then we simplified it to F9 sounds like a jet fighter craft at this point and then you went to Fast X which sounds like an iPhone and.
|
Sam:
[44:30]
| There was a spinoff called Hobbs and Shaw.
|
Ivan:
[44:33]
| Hobbs and Shaw, yes, And they've got a plan for Fast X Part 2.
|
Sam:
[44:40]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[44:40]
| Okay. And then you've got another one that they think Fast and the Furious presents Hobbs and Reyes. Not Hobbs and Shaw. Not sure who Reyes is. And then the other ones have no name. But they have two more. One that says Untitled Standalone Film. Untitled Female Led Spinoff. I mean, I'm not...
|
Sam:
[45:01]
| And as I scroll down the Wikipedia page, there are two short films as well.
|
Ivan:
[45:06]
| They're short films, yes. The Turbo Charge.
|
Sam:
[45:09]
| And a TV show. And a TV show. The Spy Racers on Netflix.
|
Ivan:
[45:16]
| And six seasons.
|
Sam:
[45:18]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[45:19]
| I mean, I got to say, man, let me tell you something. I got to give good credit to Vin Diesel for milking the shit out of a mediocre movie. and making it a gravy train that, by the way, I'll give credit to Vin Diesel for being a stand-up guy because when Paul Walker died, he basically still kept taking care of his daughter, gave him money, walking down the aisle. So, you know, knowing that his death, he actually took care of, you know, one of his co-stars, so I'll give him credit for that. But this guy milked, I mean, this is 30 years of milking, you know, this. I mean, this makes like Tom Cruise with the Mission Impossible movies seem like just, you know, he's a rookie. I mean, this is serious milking here. Okay.
|
Sam:
[46:08]
| And by the way, the TV series is animated.
|
Ivan:
[46:11]
| Oh, the TV series is animated. Oh, there you go.
|
Sam:
[46:14]
| But apparently.
|
Ivan:
[46:16]
| And there's also, listen, there's also a very shitty ride. Okay. Which I went on. I went on when I went to Los Angeles a couple of years ago. they have a ride at universal studios okay as well which i thought was ridiculously stupid okay but i got on it it's there so they've got a ride at the universal studios hollywood i think they also have the same one in.
|
Sam:
[46:43]
| Florida oh i i have to correct myself though i i started to say that the animated series has a lot of the same voices no it only has vin diesel and some cameos otherwise not so yeah oh well so.
|
Ivan:
[46:55]
| The ride is called fast and furious supercharged.
|
Sam:
[46:59]
| Okay i mean so shall shall we go ahead and take a break and then get to world war three and everything else that we need to talk about yeah okay um yeah okay here here comes a break and then we will, talk about the more serious things going on in the world. And actually, there's too many serious things going on in the world. We probably won't get to all of them. But here we go. Okay, so we're back. Now, I had mentioned there was a lot going on, and we'll only talk about some of them. So let me list the list real quick, because some of these don't even feel like they were still this week. We had the Minnesota lawmaker shootings, the state reps.
|
Ivan:
[49:49]
| Jesus Christ, that was still this week? That was this week?
|
Sam:
[49:53]
| Yeah, that happened last Saturday, which was after Ed and I recorded the last show. We had the No Kings rallies. We had Trump's parade. We had the New York comptroller, who's also running for mayor, arrested, trying to do some, you know, on immigration stuff. We, of course, have Iran that I'm sure we're going to talk about. we had the supreme court make a significant decision on trans rights and the other things sort of fall into that category wait.
|
Ivan:
[50:23]
| What was okay what was the decision on trans rights i don't remember this one now which one.
|
Sam:
[50:27]
| The supreme court let stand uh states who have outlawed um gender affirming surgery for for minors right yeah so and and that affects approximately half the country And so, you know, basically, if you're a trans kid in those states, you're out of luck right now, unless your parents are wealthy enough to, you know, take you to a different state for your treatments.
|
Sam:
[50:58]
| So that went on i will say on the no kings thing i'd mentioned last week both ed and i talked about how the fact we intended to go to these things i did go and i will say it was it was it was good like i went in everett washington and you know ed and i talked about like one of the reasons for things like this is not necessarily that you expect, oh my God, Donald Trump will see all these rallies and change things. And no, that's not it. But it's when you go to them, the sense of, you know, no, you're not alone. A lot of people also feel this way. A lot of people are upset by this. And to sort of get that validation and to feel like, you know, especially right now when, you know, all of the institutions are going the other direction, you know, the presidency, the court, the Congress, et cetera. And we have things like the Supreme Court decision, you know.
|
Sam:
[52:06]
| Being in a place where you are surrounded by like-minded people who are being loud and vocal, and you can see that there are actually a lot of them. Nationwide, I think the estimates ended up at five or six million people nationwide participated in these things. I saw some estimates.
|
Ivan:
[52:25]
| Basically, as many people that went to the parade in Washington, right?
|
Sam:
[52:30]
| Just a tad more. But yeah, I've seen some estimates that were even higher, but the most credible estimates were five to six million. And, you know, like when I was in Everett, Washington, you know, there were big crowds. There was a little rally. And then there was like a couple hours of sign waving along one of the main drags through town. And the thing that got me the most and honestly had me like tearing up at certain points were that, you know, almost the entire time where people were sand, sand, sand, sign waving, the, the road was still open. This wasn't a parade. This was just people lining the sidewalks with their signs. So there was still traffic going down the street. and there was almost non-stop the entire time people honking in support and waving out their windows as they drove by whereas like i've been to i've been to sign wavings before for like candidates like both for my wife and for other local candidates where you know you're just sitting on a corner waving the sign for your candidate or whatever and yeah you get some supporting honks, but you also get people, well, no, you get a few, but, but you also get people giving you the finger and yelling out the window. There was none of that going on. And maybe they were just intimidated by the large crowd. And exactly good.
|
Ivan:
[53:58]
| You know, I, I, I, you know, I want to go back to the time where fucking racist people were intimidated into not being racist.
|
Sam:
[54:07]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[54:07]
| Can we go back to that time? You remember the good old days?
|
Sam:
[54:11]
| Oh, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[54:12]
| When they were scared of being fucking racist?
|
Sam:
[54:14]
| Oh, yeah. But like, no, it was just very heartening to like, you know, we spent probably an hour walking down the street because there was like a like a mile where people were lining the streets and we walked down one side and up the other. And, you know, during that time, you know, I mean, just all the energy that was there was just very heartening and invigorating. And, you know, it's like, yeah, let's go. And I've seen some things afterwards, you know, we've criticized like, you know, Democratic leadership before for not having this kind of energy. And there were a lot of Democratic leaders who sort of stayed away from these things. And, you know, with notable exceptions, the usual notable exceptions. but it's like, come on folks, harness this energy. Like, let's go, let's show some vigor, show some fight. And, uh, cause there are clearly lots of people that are just ready for that and want to want an outlet for all this energy and want leaders that also show the same kind of energy as opposed to sort of just, what we're getting.
|
Sam:
[55:35]
| So, again, with notable exceptions. Okay, that was all I had to say. The other things that I listed that were not particularly newsy, I've mentioned on the show my little Tempest game machine that has been in a box for months, or not months, years.
|
Ivan:
[55:53]
| Years.
|
Sam:
[55:54]
| Years and years. My son Alex arranged for me to get it for Christmas like three years ago or something. I opened the box once, saw it looked complicated to put together, put it back in the box. And ever since then, I've been begging my family every birthday, every Christmas, every Father's Day, can you please put this together for me? Because it stressed me out when I even looked at it.
|
Ivan:
[56:19]
| Yeah, you would be no good at assembling. Because I assembled it and I...
|
Sam:
[56:25]
| Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[56:26]
| You would not be the right person to do it.
|
Sam:
[56:28]
| I have assembled other things, and I hate assembling things, and it stresses me out, even when it's simple. I opened this box, and it didn't look simple. No, this is not simple. I was like, screw that. I'm not doing it. So Alex and my wife, Brandy, together put this thing together for this fall. Together, together, together. Put it, assembled it for this Father's Day. I've been playing it. It comes with 12 games. I've now played 11 of them. I've said nobody else is allowed to play it until I play the first game on each one of the games. I've got one more to do. But I've been enjoying it. I've been playing every day.
|
Ivan:
[57:06]
| I like ours. We don't have the Tempest one. I got the Ms. Pac-Man one. It's got about a dozen games. No, we've got Galaga.
|
Sam:
[57:16]
| It's got... No, and I must say, the reason... Dig Dug. The reason Alex got this for me is I had said before, from that era of games, Tempest was my favorite.
|
Ivan:
[57:26]
| I, I, I, I.
|
Sam:
[57:28]
| I like, that's why I have this one. And, and I have, I have played the, I have played the others on this console. It's got like Centipede and Millipede and those are, and like Missile Command and a few other things like that.
|
Ivan:
[57:41]
| Ah, Missile Command. Yes.
|
Sam:
[57:43]
| And, and, you know, those are fun. Those are okay. But I must say Tempest is, is my go-to. And like, I've played Tempest clones elsewhere. But this has the proper spinny wheel control and like, it's not the same game. If you're trying to do it with an Xbox controller or something.
|
Ivan:
[58:03]
| You know, it's just not.
|
Sam:
[58:04]
| You know, so, so I am enjoying the spinning wheel. I'm enjoying the game. So thank, and oh, Alex wants me to mention that he has also, he has been coding up a Tempest clone for the iPad using what, what's this program called Kodia? c-o-d-e-a he's been he's he's been using that to to program a tempest clone that every time he shows it to me he's added more of the original game into it so it's got the sort of spinning around and shooting things and he's now got it so you can finish a level and you know as several of the things if you don't know what the tempest game is this won't mean anything to you but, you know anyway he's every time he hands it to me it's got more features except the one thing that i still have not gotten used to obviously an ipad does not have a little controller to spin he's set it up so the controls are actually spinning the ipad and and i can't quite i can't quite get used to those controls but i have managed to finish the level that he's set up so Anyway, okay, that was everything else. What, Iran? Are we just going to go to Iran now? Or are we going to spend the rest of time talking about Trump's party?
|
Ivan:
[59:25]
| No, let's go to Iran. Iran.
|
Sam:
[59:31]
| So, Ed and I did talk about Iran a little bit.
|
Ivan:
[59:35]
| I hate Iran.
|
Sam:
[59:36]
| Because it had started last time. Israel had attacked. Iran had started to retaliate when we recorded last week's show. But obviously, it's continued this whole time. And I guess the big additional thing is Donald Trump has been contemplating whether or not to let the U.S. get involved in helping take out.
|
Sam:
[1:00:02]
| The underground portions of the nuclear capability. Camp, uh, whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:07]
| Nucular!
|
Sam:
[1:00:08]
| Nucular, yes, sorry. I keep wanting to say Frodo for where this is. It's not Frodo, uh, because of the Lord of the Rings. It's Fordor? What is it? Fordor? The Iranian base where they're doing enrichment or whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:23]
| Something like that.
|
Sam:
[1:00:25]
| But I keep wanting to call it Frodo.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:27]
| I am... Something.
|
Sam:
[1:00:31]
| And it's not Fodor's either. That's a travel guide.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:34]
| That's a travel guide, yes. That's correct. footer, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:00:38]
| Fordow, F-O-R-D-O-W, is the actual thing. Not Frodo.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:43]
| Not Fredo.
|
Sam:
[1:00:44]
| It's the Fordow fuel enrichment plant.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:47]
| Given that you did the godfather, Fredo.
|
Sam:
[1:00:49]
| Oh, Fredo, yes, Fredo.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:51]
| Yes, it's not Fredo.
|
Sam:
[1:00:53]
| Or Alfredo.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:54]
| Or Fettuccini, Alfredo, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:00:57]
| Exactly. Now you're making me hungry. Okay, we're still avoiding the topic.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:03]
| Look, so, okay, well, now, see? It seems that Trump's chickened out.
|
Sam:
[1:01:09]
| Yes, it does appear. Like, here's the thing. He went from, when this whole thing started, the U.S. position stated by all kinds of administration people was this is entirely between Israel and Iran. We have nothing to do with it. We're not going to be involved. We were pushing for Israel not to do this. because we were pushing the peace talks, we wanted the new deal in place, et cetera, et cetera. Then there was a leak that said, well, actually, Donald Trump has said publicly that he was pushing for the deal, but actually he didn't say no to the Israelis. And he actually gave the green light. And then there was reporting that what was actually happening is Trump really liked the coverage on Fox of what Israel was doing. And so he wanted to take some credit for it. And so he was.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:13]
| God, which makes sense. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:02:16]
| And so then, you know, there was still sort of, then there was this talk about how, well, Israel's not going to be able to get all of the capabilities because they don't have the right kind of bunker buster bombs. And so, you know, they really are going to need the U S and Netanyahu is trying to get Trump to get involved. And sin though, so there was a lot of Donald Trump saying, well, we might get involved in a, we, we, we might kill Khamenei too.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:46]
| And we might even use a tactical nuke.
|
Sam:
[1:02:49]
| And we might use a tactical nuke. Now, Trump didn't say that. There was somebody else said that. But like, you know, it's been implied that nothing is off the table. And so there was a ramp up of the hawkish rhetoric coming from Trump and those surrounding him for a few days. And then it became clear that there was a significant schism in Trump land between the isolationist wing who really bought into Trump as the peace president and doesn't want war and wants to keep away from all of this stuff. And the whole point is, you know, America first, forget about all these international entanglements. In fact, Bannon specifically was on TV saying, you don't want to let this Iran thing distract from deporting all the illegals, because if you don't deport all the illegals, you've lost the country. And so, apparently...
|
Ivan:
[1:03:52]
| This straight. Let me get this straight. Okay?
|
Sam:
[1:03:55]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:56]
| So my choices are, okay, it seems, fucking send a fleet of B-2 spirits with these bunker buster bombs over there in order to you know, maybe fail at this and maybe stop the Iranians, maybe not, maybe trigger World War 3. Or, Or my door number two is this ridiculous mass cruelty event that we're living with right now. Is that, you know, with the deportation? Are those my doors at this moment?
|
Sam:
[1:04:38]
| Well, there are other people that say why you have both. But I'll also say you also had the faction of the Republicans who are more aligned with the neocons. who, you know, and like, what's his name?
|
Ivan:
[1:04:51]
| Bomb them.
|
Sam:
[1:04:51]
| Lindsey Graham was one of these.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:54]
| Well, Fetterman was like bomb.
|
Sam:
[1:04:57]
| Fetterman, yeah, absolutely. On the Democratic side, there are a whole bunch saying, yeah, absolutely, we have to take out the Iranians, whatever we do now, let's take our chance. Let's do this. We've been wanting to do this for a decade, you know? And so it seems like at the moment we are recording, and this could change in the next hour, the last person to talk to Donald Trump was indeed Bannon. And so the current thing that came out immediately after Donald Trump had Bannon over to the White House was, okay, let's, We'll give it two weeks. We'll give the Iranians two weeks to maybe come to the table and do the peace deal after all. Now, a couple of things on this. First of all, I will say— And apparently.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:46]
| Wait, Trump was also talking about the Nobel Peace Prize.
|
Sam:
[1:05:50]
| Yes, yes. We'll hit that in a second.
|
Ivan:
[1:05:52]
| But that's not unimportant, okay? Here is the thing about this. Remember that Obama got one. And there is this entire Obama, you know, thing that kills him, okay, about that.
|
Sam:
[1:06:10]
| Ed and I talked about this last week. You know, Trump clearly in multiple areas is saying, hell, today he like truth socialed something where he almost explicitly said it, but he was hoping for the fix the Ukraine situation in 24 hours and get the Nobel Peace Fries for that. Feeling that he wanted to get a Nobel Peace Prize for solving Gaza by building the Gaza and Riviera and kicking out all the people. Now, he was hoping to get a Nobel Peace Prize by bringing back the Iranian deal that he killed eight years ago. You know, there's... Oh, and he's also saying he deserves it for solving the India-Pakistan situation. Oh, and by the way, just a few hours ago, Showing that they know how to suck up, the Pakistanis nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for the India-Pakistan situation.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:21]
| Now, look, but it's very clear that Bannon went in there. and his, listen, because he had the Netanyahu manipulation using Fox News with going and, you know, doing the bombing and saying, hey, they're a threat, and they were kind of like brainwashing him nonstop with Fox just being all warmongery. So you had him almost on the point of like him pulling the trigger.
|
Sam:
[1:07:46]
| He was ready to push the damn button to drop a nuke on Tehran.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:49]
| Yeah, exactly. He had him all the way there, then Bannon goes in because, you know, like, like, like, you know, like everything happens, like, but the whole immigration thing the other week when he, when he's flip-flopped already, you know, where Bannon goes in and he said, no, whatever you want, that noble peace prize, we can't do this. And then all of a sudden, no, we're off the table. We're going for peace. Two weeks.
|
Sam:
[1:08:15]
| Here's, here's the thing. Well, the two weeks thing, and a number of people have pointed this out, but, and some people have made video compilations of this, but we'll decide this in two weeks, is a standard go-to thing that Donald Trump does. People have pulled video compilations. Apparently, he's done it a few dozen times already since January in his second term.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:41]
| Infrastructure week!
|
Sam:
[1:08:42]
| And people pulled it from his first term as well. Not just infrastructure week, but basically whenever there was a decision to be made that was somewhat hard, his go-to is, we'll make a decision on this in two weeks. And he hopes that two weeks later, everyone's forgotten because he never comes back and actually makes the decision two weeks later.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:08]
| Oh, my God.
|
Sam:
[1:09:09]
| So, like, the play here is not actually, we'll give it two weeks, and two weeks later, we'll make a decision.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:17]
| The play is, in two weeks, I will have created some other crisis in some other fucking way that will make you forget about that one two weeks ago. Exactly. Which is, you know, yes.
|
Sam:
[1:09:29]
| Very plausible.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:31]
| Totally.
|
Sam:
[1:09:32]
| And also in this scenario, he may be like, hey, hell, two weeks from now, there's no indication the Israelis are waiting. The Israelis have put out a bunch of statements today that says all this reporting that we can't do it ourselves is bullshit. We've got ways to do it.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:48]
| But look, it is the Israelis know it is far more difficult for them to do it without our help.
|
Sam:
[1:09:56]
| OK, well, and one of the statements about using a tactical nuke did come from the Israeli side, by the way, that there is there is not officially not an official statement. But, you know, listen.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:08]
| I got to tell you something. The Israelis have to be out of their fucking mind. To try to use a nuke.
|
Sam:
[1:10:17]
| It is Bibi.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:18]
| It doesn't matter. Okay, look, listen, let's be clear. Why is Bibi doing this, Sam?
|
Sam:
[1:10:25]
| Oh, could it possibly be because his trial's not going well?
|
Ivan:
[1:10:32]
| And his coalition is so fragile. How do you keep that coalition together?
|
Sam:
[1:10:37]
| Well, and this is, you know, Ed and I talked about this about Iran last week, but it applies to Israel, too.
|
Ivan:
[1:10:44]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:10:44]
| The one thing that is consistent, you know, worldwide, all the time, you can point to examples here in the U.S., it doesn't always last forever. But if you want a boost in your approval ratings, war.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:01]
| Yeah. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:11:02]
| You know?
|
Ivan:
[1:11:03]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:11:03]
| Like, if you're, if, I mean, hell, they made Wag the Dog about this, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:11:08]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:11:08]
| If you have domestic issues and you want to boost and you want to make people forget about the domestic issues.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:16]
| War. War against a known enemy.
|
Sam:
[1:11:20]
| Against, yeah. I mean, like.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:22]
| I mean, you know, it's like the Argentinians. Listen, the Argentinians and the Falklands, for example. Look, I mean, that was like, look, that was a sore spot for them. The British, you know, were hated over the Falklands were theirs. that military government was was in you know was in crisis fuck let's take let's take the falklands the hell with it and and their popularity soared okay immediately.
|
Sam:
[1:11:50]
| Well yeah i mean the context ed and i talked about this last week was the israelis talking about hey maybe because of this the iranian regime is really fragile and they'll fall and i was like no come on the one thing that rallies people behind the flag is being attacked. Even more than going to war.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:11]
| Well, look.
|
Sam:
[1:12:12]
| There is a certain point. There is a certain tipping point where if it gets bad enough, it goes the other direction.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:20]
| But here's the thing. The Iranian regime is vastly unpopular. I had shared an article from The Economist that was talking about this.
|
Sam:
[1:12:30]
| I'll tell you what, they're more popular now than they were two weeks ago.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:33]
| But not that much is what I'm looking at in there. There were actually quite a lot of people. You know, there was an article that I shared from The Economist. The Arab War thinks differently about this Iran war. A new spectator sport with scary consequences in which a lot of the people that normally were like Iranian, like, you know, cheerleaders were just like, eh, fuck the Iranians. You know, what the hell? They're assholes anyway. They've been fucking with us for so long. The hell with them. You know, it's just, it just, it wasn't, there wasn't the, There wasn't the kind of reaction that you would expect outpouring of mass support for the Iranians. OK, but did it maybe improve internally? Somewhat. Sure. But they definitely didn't get some. You know, it's not like when, you know, Russia attack Ukraine. Right.
|
Sam:
[1:13:38]
| Mm hmm.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:40]
| Unilaterally, everybody was on the Ukrainian side. The Israelis attacked Iran and even their neighbors or whatever. They were like, they're supposed to allies. They were like, well.
|
Sam:
[1:13:51]
| I am talking mainly internally in my in the statement I made.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:55]
| But even there was there was talk about internally. Look, there was quite a lot. There was quite, quite a lot of angst against the Iranian regime right now. A lot of people were talking, you know, the things internally that we're talking about was how stupid are our leaders? that they got caught like that and they got killed like that, that they were so cavalier that even though there were messages about the threats, what they decided to do is after bullshit and they got killed.
|
Sam:
[1:14:30]
| And specifically, like even those that thought they would probably be an attack thought that the Israelis would hold off until the next scheduled meeting with the Americans.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:42]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:14:43]
| Like, and, and probably I would imagine, you know, Donald Trump probably thought so too.
|
Ivan:
[1:14:50]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:14:51]
| You know, he was played by, by Bibi on this one. He was used as the bait to make sure the Iranians were caught by surprise because they thought they were right in the midst of negotiations with the Americans and there was no way the Israelis would attack while that was going on. Wrong.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:10]
| Yep.
|
Sam:
[1:15:10]
| You know but but yeah so anyway it looks like donald trump has done his it'll you know we'll tell you in two weeks and he's really hoping this goes away and you know let's hope he's right i don't know like you know you know i saw a chart of the number of attacks in both directions over the last couple of weeks. And it is less than it was at the beginning. Like there was a big spike at the beginning in both directions and it is slowing down. But it's not over in either direction.
|
Ivan:
[1:15:55]
| Listen, this is very costly for the Israelis, like right now. I just saw that just the defense, just how much in munitions for daily defense it cost when the Iranians were launching was about a quarter of a billion dollars a day.
|
Sam:
[1:16:10]
| Well, and there's also a question of how many of these defensive missiles they even have. Like, you know, there were reports that, you know, although the quality isn't that great, just in terms of sheer numbers, Iran has more offensive missiles than Israel has defensive missiles.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:32]
| So they think.
|
Sam:
[1:16:33]
| So they think.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:34]
| So they think. Because that's been the speculation. Because also, by the way, you know, the Iranians, all of a sudden, the number of missiles they were launching was also going down pretty quickly as well.
|
Sam:
[1:16:42]
| Yes, it was.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:43]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:16:44]
| Well, and for two reasons. One, you know, well, one is just straight up, Israel is destroying a lot of them on the ground. Exactly. A bunch of what Israel is doing is attacking known Iranian missile bases.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:00]
| Missile bases, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:17:01]
| I mean, one of the things that Israel has said is, yes, we're after the nuclear capabilities, but we're also after the missile capabilities, conventional.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:09]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:17:10]
| You know, because that, and if you remember, that was one of the main, I shouldn't say one of the main, there were many criticisms, but one of the big criticisms the Israelis and the neocon conservatives in America had against the Iran deal that the Obama-Iran deal was that it only talked about the nuclear development platform and not all the other things. Iran was doing with their missile capabilities and their interference with various other countries around the region. And Obama's response was, look, one thing at a time, we're dealing with the news.
|
Ivan:
[1:17:52]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:17:53]
| Whereas, you know, B.B. and others were basically saying, if you don't solve everything, we're not interested at all.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:00]
| Ah, the perfect solution. Otherwise, no solution. Yes. And also always, always a way to solve all problems is to always look for the perfect solution.
|
Sam:
[1:18:10]
| And the other thing that all of these folks said was a problem was the Obama deal had a lifespan. It was you won't do these things for X number of years and said nothing about the time period after that. And they were basically saying the fact that it's not forever makes it unacceptable. Whereas, again, the Obama position was, hey, if we've got a 10-year moratorium, it gives us 10 years to work on the deal for what happens after that. And it gives us 10 years to work on improving the relationship I've ever ran with the rest of the world to diminish the problem anyway. Of course, that didn't play out because Donald Trump, you know, got rid of the deal. And I've also seen all kinds of charts in the last week of, you know, the amount of nuclear, of refined uranium that Iran had, or the number of centrifuges, all various metrics here that show it go up, up, up, up, up. then the the the deal happens and it goes to zero it goes to zero and it's flat and if you remember this was verified internationally going yeah i know i know all kinds of inspectors and blah blah blah and then there's another vertical line that says oh and at this point this is when trump pulled out and all those lines start going back up again there's like a three-month delay and then it all starts going back up again and exceeds where they were in the obama administration Well.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:36]
| I wish his father had pulled out at some point, but that didn't happen. Um, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:19:44]
| So I, I, one other thing, just before I forget, when, when we were talking about the factions of Republicans, including the ones who are upset about Donald Trump, but potentially liking war and not being all peacenik, my daughter was apparently hearing from the other room and texted me all the Trump stands crying over this war effort are goofy losers.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:10]
| Okay let's be clear all the trump stands period about anything are goofy losers all right let's be clear let's.
|
Sam:
[1:20:20]
| Get back let's get back to the walls weird thing that should never have been abandoned.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:24]
| That should never been abandoned you know but there was there was this article, talking about specifically this you can go first because it's about this subject specifically okay You know, talking about why, you know, somebody, it's up stack, Charlie Sykes wrote, why is this happening with Trump? Okay. And these were, these were the bullet points. Okay. About this. You need to understand this. This is what we need to understand about that fetid stew of Trump's cognitive, you know, this is Trump loves to dress up part of being generalissimo, but he is not a warrior president. He revels in the trappings and parade of power, but if he wages war, he wants to be here in America, not abroad. Crazy. Yes, that's what he's doing. He would love day one of the war, not so much the days after. He wants the show, but not the mess. Donald Trump very much wants to be the strong man who drums the big bunker bomb on Iran's nuclear program, but he also very much wants to win a Nobel Prize because he really does fancy himself as a peacemaker. Don't ask. Let me put a parenthesis why that is. Trump enjoys the attention he's getting now and craves being in control. But the fallout from war is uncontrollable. There are $40,000 American troops in harm's way. Iran could blockade the Strait of Hormuz. And finally, the guy who blusters all caps threats, unconditional surrender, really does always chicken out.
|
Sam:
[1:21:51]
| Yes, because he doesn't want to do anything that in the end is risky to him. There was another clip, and this was from BBC Newsnight that I saw shared on social media with an analyst talking about this. And this, I said it was spot on, nails it. Because basically she said, look, the thing you got to remember is that Trump does not think strategically at all.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:21]
| Nothing.
|
Sam:
[1:22:22]
| Nothing. He does not think about what's good for America.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:27]
| What's good for the world.
|
Sam:
[1:22:29]
| For Israel, for Iran, for any. No, God.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:33]
| Fuck no.
|
Sam:
[1:22:34]
| It is all about how does he personally come out looking like a winner.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:38]
| Yep.
|
Sam:
[1:22:39]
| That's it.
|
Ivan:
[1:22:40]
| That is it. There is no other fucking consideration in this guy's mind.
|
Sam:
[1:22:46]
| Exactly. And so like this flip-flopping you're seeing, like this is exactly like at first he was like, hey, I'm going to come out a winner because I'm going to come up with a new Iran deal. And then he sees Israel kicking ass, blowing up things in Iran and getting positive coverage on Fox News.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:07]
| Hey, hey, hey, hey, I want credit for that.
|
Sam:
[1:23:09]
| Exactly. And then he gets Bannon talking to him and saying, oh, no, no, no, that would be a huge mess. You want to keep out of this. You want to make sure you have your success elsewhere. And so he pivots again.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:22]
| You want to get your noble beast, Bryce.
|
Sam:
[1:23:24]
| And it's all about what does he make him look good. Now, I've also seen people point out, because it was both him and it was Tucker Carlson and Bannon.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:33]
| Oh, my God. No, yeah, well, both of them.
|
Sam:
[1:23:36]
| Tucker Carlson was talking to Ted Cruz and was all going in on Ted Cruz.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:44]
| Tucker Carlson humiliated Ted, which I guess is not that hard if you get him one on one.
|
Sam:
[1:23:49]
| Look, he was asking questions about, like, what's the population of Iran and such, and I wouldn't have known off the top of my head either. you know so but his point no.
|
Ivan:
[1:23:58]
| But but his his point was that he hasn't he had been making.
|
Sam:
[1:24:02]
| His point very detailed.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:03]
| Recommendations without knowing shit about the subject.
|
Sam:
[1:24:06]
| Yes yes the fundamental point was ted cruz has been going on about wanting to attack iran and we needing to be part of this and how this is necessary but then when you ask him questions that delve anything beyond the superficial of the situation he has no freaking idea exactly and and so and and then you may look this is this is one of those scenarios where okay they're fighting themselves this is like when we were talking about elon a few weeks ago right you know yes it's fun to watch them fight amongst themselves but you don't have to align yourself with them you know it's like it's like okay i am glad that bannon is in there trying to talk donald trump out of getting involved in a war but that doesn't make a reasons are awful are awful it has nothing to do with what would be my reasons for keeping out of a war in iran right of which there are many there are many good ones yes But Bannon's reason, oh, you don't want to be distracted from causing great pain and suffering amongst the immigrant population in the country.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:22]
| By the way, the immigrant population in the blue states in the country, which is what I'm realizing now, by the way, this is I realize.
|
Sam:
[1:25:31]
| I mean, he's hitting some red states, too. But, yeah, it's mainly.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:34]
| Barely, barely, Sam. Barely. this is all listen, this is all show and he's really targeting like New York and California I mean, you don't see this shit coming out barely out of Texas or.
|
Sam:
[1:25:52]
| Where you are in.
|
Ivan:
[1:25:53]
| Florida or Florida, This is, I mean, and there was, like recently, I can't remember when he said this, that we need to exert the maximum pain on those states specifically.
|
Sam:
[1:26:08]
| They're open about it. They're open.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:10]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:26:11]
| It's not even hidden in any way.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:13]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:26:14]
| Now, and I suspect, you know, there, I suspect there's plenty happening in red states too, actually, but where they want the emphasis is the blue.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:25]
| There is some happening, but it's nowhere, nowhere near what they're doing in California, New York.
|
Sam:
[1:26:34]
| My point is just that, you know, it is really weird to be in a situation where you're like, go, Bannon, go.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:43]
| I know. I'm like, fuck.
|
Sam:
[1:26:45]
| Or like, oh, Tucker Carlson. You know, go, go.
|
Ivan:
[1:26:50]
| Humiliated Ted Cruz. I'm like, yeah, I'm all I'm all in for humiliating Ted Cruz. I mean, you know, that's always a fun day, you know? I mean, making him look like the complete fucking idiot loser he is. Yes, I'm all in.
|
Sam:
[1:27:04]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:04]
| But Tucker Carlson is a hateful, spiteful little man as well. So.
|
Sam:
[1:27:12]
| As is Bannon.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:13]
| As is Bannon.
|
Sam:
[1:27:15]
| Yeah, a bunch of these other folks.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:17]
| As is Miller. As is, you know. Hey, how's Tulsi feeling today, by the way?
|
Sam:
[1:27:21]
| Oh, yeah. Well, we hadn't even mentioned Tulsi.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:25]
| How's she doing? You think she's feeling good today?
|
Sam:
[1:27:30]
| It's not her best week.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:32]
| No.
|
Sam:
[1:27:34]
| So you want to say what happened to Tulsi or shall I?
|
Ivan:
[1:27:37]
| I mean, okay, so.
|
Sam:
[1:27:39]
| This is actually important to the scenario, too.
|
Ivan:
[1:27:43]
| The main thing today, Trump was angry. Earlier this month, I'll read it. This is from a New York Times article. It talks specifically about this call. Trump's rebuke of Gabbard signals an uneasy moment. Earlier this month, Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, posted a three and a half minute video, social media, describing her visit to Hiroshima and outlining the horrors caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon there 80 years ago. Speaking directly to the camera, Ms. Gabbard warned that the threat of nuclear war remained as we stand here today closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before. She said political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tension between nuclear powers. Mr. Trump berated Ms. Gabbard for the video, according to two people briefed on the conversation. She had said that her discussion of nuclear annihilation would scare people and that officials should not talk about it. So that was the first thing. OK, and then she was Trump was asked publicly about, you know, the the military strike on Iran. Miss Gabbard, a critic of overseas entanglements, has privately raised concerns of a wider war. And on Friday, Mr. Trump said she's wrong when he was asked about her testimony in March that Iran had not decided to build a nuclear weapon. Just flat out.
|
Sam:
[1:28:58]
| And let me hit that part, because I think that's actually very important, because this is not just Tulsi. Like, Tulsi is representing the actual intelligence conclusion of the U.S. government that has been consistent for a number of years.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:18]
| That they're not building a nuke.
|
Sam:
[1:29:19]
| Which is that while the capacity that the Iranians have for uranium enrichment is concerning, because in theory, it means if the Iranians made the decision to actually build a weapon, it gets them closer to that point. But the actual situation going back to all the way to, I believe, 2003, is that the leadership in Iran, the religious leadership in Iran, had put a stop to actual nuclear weapon research. And had put out all kinds of statements about how nuclear weapons were immoral and should not be used in war, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And basically killed any actual development of weapons way back in 2023, not 2023, 2003.
|
Sam:
[1:30:17]
| Like over 20 years ago. And the U.S. intelligence consensus is that that has not changed. The sort of official sense of what's going on is, yes, the Iranians have a civilian capacity. Yes, that civilian capacity could potentially be converted to dual use and made into a weapons capacity. And yes, there is concern about how short that time period is. If you fully develop what the Iranians are doing, you potentially get into a situation where converting it into a weapons capacity is a very short timeline. Now you hear like some people on the, you know, on the hawkish side say that time period is in weeks. But what I've heard from more neutral experts is more likely we're talking six months to a year if the Iranians actually decided, yes, we absolutely do want a weapon. Let's go.
|
Sam:
[1:31:20]
| And so... There is reason for concern, potentially. However, the American intelligence consensus is the Iranians have never actually made that shift and said, yes, we are building a weapon and we want to build a weapon or that it's moral to do so. Right now, there is a religious dicta saying that that would be fundamentally wrong and that the country should not do that.
|
Sam:
[1:31:53]
| And that doesn't mean they couldn't change their mind or the next leader could have a different opinion. But it does mean that when you, and obviously, like, well, I shouldn't say obviously, the take is Israeli intelligence has come to a different conclusion. But you have to wonder, do they really know something more or are they just, for good reason, wanting to index to being more paranoid about the situation because the consequences are much greater for them in the short term if Iran does decide to do this? and apparently this this is a situation where as recently as march like you said tulsi was in front of congressional committees stating that this was the conclusion of an of american intelligence and we have donald trump openly on the white house lawn answering a question saying well if that's what they think they're just full of it they're just wrong they're they're just wrong Not because he knows something specific otherwise. It's just it's not convenient for him. And this just reminds you of the situation going up to the first Iraq war where, you know, the intelligence community was essentially stifled and was only allowed to bring to the president.
|
Sam:
[1:33:16]
| Information that led to the conclusion that, yes, of course the Iraqis are building weapons of mass destruction and we need an invasion. All of the counter evidence was stifled and held internally, and people were told, no, no, no, that's not wanted. We're not going to go there. There was plenty of that. There was plenty of intelligence indicating that it was bullshit.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:39]
| Including an actual guy that people made fun of, Hans Blix, who was an inspector that went around and basically had done all these inspections and show that they weren't doing this and the u.s government chose to ignore that information.
|
Sam:
[1:33:56]
| And and this this is the similarity i'm pointing out it's just like donald and we know this about him in general donald trump has no real concern for what is actually true or not yeah what are facts no it's what it's what's convenient for his situation again what will make him see seem like a winner and oh.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:18]
| By the way as as this was all happening he called the fed chairman powell a complete moron.
|
Sam:
[1:34:23]
| Well yes of course and he said he's going to appoint his successor soon even though he's got like a year left on his term or whatever yeah something like yeah i mean it's all about positioning himself to look like a winner It is not about what's actually happening on the ground. And I'll point out, by the way, also, as usual with Israeli preemptive wars, or for that matter, preemptive wars in general, it holds true for the Iraq war we were just talking about, too. You know, if you look at casualties and fatalities in this back and forth between Israel and Iran, Israel's killed a lot more people than Iran has. just like israel's killed a lot more people in gaza than than hamas succeeded in killing israelis you know and so obviously there are other factors at play that you have to consider but if you just weigh things in terms of who's killed the more people the most people it's not even close yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:35:26]
| I know oh gosh any other happy fun stuff.
|
Sam:
[1:35:30]
| Happy fun stuff we we we the lawmaker shootings Is that happy and fun? I mean, I'll just say on this, having a wife who's a state legislator, this stuff hits home. And there, you know, I've heard through the grapevine, nothing I could quote directly, but there are considerations being worked up in terms of does security have to be increased for other lawmakers, you know, here in Washington and across the country after this. and you know my my wife this very moment i just finished a she was attending a conference in seattle of women lawmakers from across the country and you know this was a topic of conversation you know look i.
|
Ivan:
[1:36:26]
| I when i lived in in puerto rico when i was young there were still residual effects of a significant amount of violence against elected officials in Puerto Rico, assassination attempts and other things, which meant that many elected officials in Puerto Rico at much, you know, unlike in the States, that at the governor level, the ace of the governor, et cetera, many of those had police, I mean, they had to sign security details because of how, I mean, these attacks were, I mean, there was a siege in Old San Juan that happened in the 50s, okay, by terrorists seeking to assassinate the governor. It was this bad, taking lawmakers hostage, you know, all of this. We had bombings regularly, a post office. Hell, there was even an attack on an Air Force base in Puerto Rico that destroyed a whole bunch of F-4 Phantoms on a tarmac. So so we had that level of local violence. And I happen to have the governor's daughter was with me at school and she had a sign. I mean, we had assigned police officers that were guarding our school, you know.
|
Sam:
[1:37:44]
| And look, we've we've said before that, you know, given the increasing temperature of It is surprising that we haven't had more of this than we have. And that's not to say there's been zero. You know, there were plenty of attempts. We had the two Donald Trump assassination attempts. We had the softball game shooting where Scalise was shot. We had Gabby Gifford. Gabby Giffords. We've had plenty. We had January 6th. We've had plenty of situations.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:20]
| Oh, but that was a tour.
|
Sam:
[1:38:22]
| Oh, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:23]
| Yeah. What are you talking about?
|
Sam:
[1:38:25]
| That was completely peaceful. You know, we've had a bunch of these events, but like, and I may be forgetting some, but there may have been one other fatality.
|
Ivan:
[1:38:39]
| The governor of Michigan plot.
|
Sam:
[1:38:41]
| Oh, yeah. The governor of Michigan plot where they were going to kidnap her. But this is the first fatality in a while. you know with this kind of violence but the thing is that's important here is it does look like once again this is like a lone wolf type guy who is just you know but that's how this was a liberal right.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:04]
| He was a he was.
|
Sam:
[1:39:05]
| Oh yeah he was a flaming liberal right oh he's a fame antifa obviously no no he was not but like this is the thing with when you're raising the temperature like this They call it stochastic violence, you know, stochastic terrorism, et cetera. It is not some like organized group that's, you know, I mean, look, they're all, there are these militias and the night, the, the three percenters and the proud boys and all these folks, but those are, yeah. And those do have their own risks associated with them and things they could do, but the greatest danger and the hardest to combat is just random people who get radicalized and go decide they're going to do something. And this guy had, you know, he ended up, killing two people, the ex-speaker of the house and her husband, and injuring two more lawmakers, no, one more lawmaker and his wife who are going to survive. Also killed the dog of the one he killed as well, by the way.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:17]
| So, Kristi Noem was not involved here?
|
Sam:
[1:40:19]
| Kristi Noem was not involved. But, you know, he had a list of several dozen people.
|
Ivan:
[1:40:25]
| Yeah, I know she had a list of fucking a lot of people.
|
Sam:
[1:40:28]
| And there were people not just in that state, too. This was in Minnesota. He had a whole bunch of Minnesota lawmakers. He had a whole bunch of Minnesota anti, not anti-abortion, a whole bunch of Minnesota pro-choice activists who weren't lawmakers, also on the list, and then a bunch of lawmakers from outside of Minnesota, from neighboring states as well. You know, so, you know, he had a big long list. And apparently, before he was caught, he went to two more houses from people on his hit list.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:00]
| They weren't home, thank God.
|
Sam:
[1:41:01]
| They weren't home, you know, or this would have been more.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:05]
| So, this is a good advocacy for socialize and get the hell out of the house more often. Might save your life. You got some asshole trying to kill you.
|
Sam:
[1:41:16]
| I guess so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, I don't know.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:21]
| By the way, as my recommendation to you, okay, I don't know about you guys, and my wife gets on me, but number one, okay, you guys have a doorbell. You don't open the fucking door for, you know, you don't know who the fuck it is.
|
Sam:
[1:41:38]
| We've got more fundamental issues with that, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:41:42]
| You should have the door locked.
|
Sam:
[1:41:45]
| Yes, the door should be locked.
|
Ivan:
[1:41:48]
| We should all the doors need to make the argument that i get with my wife you know no she now does it but the arguments that i got listen you need to have your doors locked you know yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:41:59]
| Look look i i mean we we uh conversations are beginning about upgrading security you.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:09]
| Know and.
|
Sam:
[1:42:10]
| And not And because of this shit, you know, not, not, not that we have a specific threat right now, but because.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:20]
| But you guys have received threats already that you guys have had investigated.
|
Sam:
[1:42:25]
| My. Yes. They're.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:27]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[1:42:28]
| Look, the bottom line is any public figure gets stuff all the time. You know. Yeah. There was, yes, there was one situation that was actually credible enough that was investigated and discussed, but, but like, you know, it was, it was, it didn't turn out to be anything, but like any public figure, potentially this kind of stuff could happen. But my, my wife is an elected representative. It, all it takes is some crazy right now. Like, you know, addresses and stuff are public record. Like, you know, this, you know, where we live is not a secret. If somebody wants to find it out.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:04]
| Except apparently if you're an ICE agent right now, which apparently you can go around completely without any identification, not identify yourself whatsoever, and grab a random person off the street without producing any paperwork to back up while you're grabbing them off the street. Now, that apparently is okay. I don't know if you've noticed. That apparently is fine. Okay? You know, but no. But your information is public. Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:43:31]
| No.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:31]
| You need to have a security system that works.
|
Sam:
[1:43:35]
| You need to have cameras that works.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:37]
| You need to make sure your doors are locking on a regular basis. Look, which is the drill.
|
Sam:
[1:43:44]
| Conversations are happening about it.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:45]
| I'm giving you the drill because I have lived through this kind of shit, unfortunately, okay? You know, because we've been robbed. We have had people come in. We have had people put guns to it. You know, so I have dealt with that, which is why I at this age have still and my wife's will we live in Boca. Listen, I don't fucking care. All right. All it takes is one lunatic. OK. All right.
|
Sam:
[1:44:07]
| Yeah. And we're there. We are having conversations about new doors, new alarm systems. Like like you said, more more and better camera systems that are installed in such like, you know, I've got a little portable ones that I can move around and blah, blah, blah. as my wife pointed out someone can just snip the cord unplug them yes you know you want one that's installed in such a way that it's built in and you can't do that you know all of this kind of stuff you know that there are you know and you know look we've same thing we're like you know it's a fairly decent neighborhood and yeah we had something stolen once in 12 years we had something stolen but you know but yeah it's a it's a decent neighborhood it's a whatever blah blah blah but all it takes? Like you said, one person, especially if they're targeting people.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:00]
| Exactly.
|
Sam:
[1:45:01]
| Exactly. Like, it's one thing where it's like you want to deter sort of the casual thief who's wandering by and looking for the more vulnerable place, whatever. It's a completely different problem if you're worried about somebody that might be targeting. And so, yeah, and so like their personal conversations we're having in the family. But like I said, I am 100% guaranteeing you all 50 state legislatures and probably the Congress as well are reassessing what they are doing for security and deciding, is it enough or do we have to beef it up? because this one event happened. You mentioned the one that happened where they tried to kidnap the governor and they did take over the state capitol in that situation.
|
Sam:
[1:45:54]
| And I'm sure this is being reassessed everywhere because the threat level is increasing because the tension levels are increasing because the animosity between the sides here is increasing as well. And because, you know, I mean, bringing up the protests and bringing in the National Guard to California and all of this kind of stuff, same thing. It's like you are taking the already vast divisions in this country and you are driving the sides further apart as we go, not bringing them back together. And it becomes harder for both sides to imagine reconciling this gap.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:45]
| Not anytime soon.
|
Sam:
[1:46:46]
| Not anytime soon. And so...
|
Ivan:
[1:46:49]
| No.
|
Sam:
[1:46:50]
| Okay, well, that was fun.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:52]
| Yay!
|
Sam:
[1:46:54]
| Shall we wrap it up?
|
Ivan:
[1:46:55]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:46:56]
| Okay, curmudgeons-corner.com. go see the stuff. We've got the archives, we've got transcripts, we've got links to all the ways to contact us. And of course, we've got the Patreon where you can give us money at various levels. We'll send you a postcard, we'll send you a mug, we'll mention you on the show, all that kind of stuff. I know, I know, I still owe postcards and mugs to people. Ed did get his mug, but I owe two postcards and a mug and I will eventually get to it. You know, I've, I've owed these things for months. Well, the new mug is for Todd. It was just on a couple of weeks ago, but, but I've, I've owned, I've owed these postcards for like months and months and months now. Eventually you will, you will get your postcards, but importantly at $2 a month or more on the Patreon, or if you just ask us, we will invite you there to Curmudgeons Corner Slack, where Yvonne and I and a whole bunch of listeners are chatting and sharing links throughout the week. So, Yvonne, what's a highlight from this week's Curmudgeons Corner Slack that we have not talked about on the show?
|
Ivan:
[1:48:05]
| Ah, the most important news of the week, which we did not cover here. And we need to make sure that our listeners and viewers are well-informed because this could be an opportunity to save money for you as the Trump Organization announces a mobile plan with a $499 smartphone. The Trump Organization unveiled a mobile phone plan and a $499 smartphone that is set to launch later this year. The new venture is the example of Donald Trump's business empire capitalizing association with a sitting president. Apparently, you can get the new service from Trump Mobile. We'll offer a $47.45 per month plan that includes unlimited talk and data, as well as roadside assistance and a telehealth and pharmacy benefit, Sam, according to its website. The company, owned by President Donald Trump, also announced it will sell a T1 smartphone, which appears to feature a gold-colored metal case etched with an American flag, Sam.
|
Sam:
[1:49:22]
| I mean, but, but Yvonne, the most critical thing, right? This phone is 100% made in America, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:49:31]
| Oh, no. But they said they will get there at some point.
|
Sam:
[1:49:39]
| But we have all these Americans clamoring to build phones.
|
Ivan:
[1:49:43]
| Yeah, because they say, hey, our made in the USA T1 phone is available pre-order now. The reality is that, as usual with them, they say that, and this is like pre-ordering a Tesla semi-truck. You may wait that long.
|
Sam:
[1:50:03]
| How long has that one been now?
|
Ivan:
[1:50:05]
| Just like those seven or eight years we've been waiting for this Tesla semi.
|
Sam:
[1:50:09]
| They do say made in America, Yvonne?
|
Ivan:
[1:50:11]
| They say that they will eventually make it. So there was an interview with, I think, one of the Trump moron kids. I don't know, whichever, one of the, you know, one of those idiots, whatever, it doesn't matter, they're fungible, in my view, anyway. One of them, they asked him about, hey, so is the phone made in America? Well, not yet, but eventually, Sam.
|
Sam:
[1:50:34]
| Eventually. Yeah. Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:50:36]
| So are we pre-ordering our T1 phone?
|
Sam:
[1:50:41]
| How can you not?
|
Ivan:
[1:50:42]
| You know, I, you know, if I could, it's $500. That's such a waste. Because I would like to get one and take like a sledgehammer and just beat it to pieces and like tape, you know, record that video.
|
Sam:
[1:50:58]
| See, here's the thing, though. You do that, you've still paid them the $500. You've still paid them. So you have to, if you're going to do something like that.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:09]
| That have some kind of like a repair breakage warranty, maybe, where I could get my money.
|
Sam:
[1:51:14]
| No, no, no. No, it's, well, maybe. No, you have to have some way where you get it from somebody who paid for it, but you don't. Or something.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:25]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:51:26]
| Or, you know, or.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:28]
| Or I find a used one on eBay for like 10 cents. After somebody, ah, yeah, because look, somebody will buy it. They'll realize what a piece of shit. they'll put it up for sale at 10 cents on the dollar if that, okay, and then we take that one and smash it hmm.
|
Sam:
[1:51:46]
| Maybe I don't know, yeah, I, You somehow, you have to arrange the whole scenario.
|
Ivan:
[1:51:54]
| So it doesn't cost me money.
|
Sam:
[1:51:56]
| No, it's not that it doesn't cost you money. The important part is you're not giving them money.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:02]
| Right, right, right. So they don't get money. We need to get a phone without us having to pay for it, but not committing something illegal.
|
Sam:
[1:52:10]
| Oh, that puts constraints. Yeah. Like, yeah, I was thinking, you know, stealing. But, you know, you were right. We should not commit felonies.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:22]
| Some kind of trial. I say, hey, guys, listen, send us a, listen, we are a podcast. We're extremely conservative podcast. And, you know, we want to review this phone for our audience so you can send us a free sample.
|
Sam:
[1:52:41]
| Yes, that's it. Yes. Okay. You get right on that, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:52:46]
| There you go. Say, yeah, we are an ultra right-wing podcast. We are all in on Trump. We are on the Trump train. We'll drive the Trump train. Just send us a free phone.
|
Sam:
[1:53:01]
| Okay, fine.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:02]
| This is how they operate. I don't know if you think you realize this, right? This is exactly, I mean, I just felt slimy saying that, but I realize that that's the way they work.
|
Sam:
[1:53:11]
| Right, because, yes, yes. If your bottom line, like Donald Trump, is do whatever makes me money, makes me a winner, and it doesn't matter what that thing is, then if you can identify, hey, it would be more lucrative to become a conservative influencer than a liberal influencer, then you just do it.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:39]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:53:39]
| Because like what you say doesn't matter. It's just instrumental to get what you want.
|
Ivan:
[1:53:46]
| There is a car guy that does car YouTube that has been very successful last five or six years, seven years. And some people are trying to dig into his background and realize that and and he admitted and he didn't want to talk about it because he's ashamed of it. That for a period of time, this is exactly what he was doing online. He was some kind of conservative troll and there was some way that he was harvesting clicks and harvesting those clicks made him money by just posting rage bait and whatever whatnot and getting the interactions and that made him money and he did that. but it was very clear that it was brought up and somebody said, and I'm like, you know what? Yeah, I did that. And I, I, I don't want to talk about that because it, but it's so like, again, he, he, he is a shame. He, it's, you can tell he was ashamed of having done that, but it was at a point where I think he admitted he was, he was broke and it was like, Oh look, I could make money out of this. Great. You know, I could make a living. And so he was doing that, but then yeah, he, he realized it, you know, like, But I am, you know, I have more scruples than that. I don't care how fucked up broke I am. I'm not going to stoop to that level of that. I could do quite a lot of other things that could earn me a wage that don't stoop to being a, basically a scumbag.
|
Sam:
[1:55:06]
| But Yvonne, look, the bottom line here is there are a lot of dumb people out there. And the best way to make money is figure out how to separate them from their money. In one way or another.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:21]
| Is that P.T. Barnum?
|
Sam:
[1:55:23]
| It's P.T. Barnum was close to that statement. I think you're right. That was probably him separating a fool from their money or whatever. And just in general, fraud is extremely lucrative so long as you don't get caught.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:37]
| Ah, that's a weird one.
|
Sam:
[1:55:38]
| And by the way.
|
Ivan:
[1:55:39]
| Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. No, no, no. Even if you get caught, what you got to do is make a hefty donation to the Donald J. Trump's super PAC and make sure it's a federal crime and you're.
|
Sam:
[1:55:52]
| You're, I was, I was about to say effectively Donald Trump's administration has legalized white collar crime because they are not prosecuting it. They are not investigating it. If you do get caught, he'll pardon you for the right donation. Uh, Menendez went to jail this week. It's a, it's a miracle. He's not pardoned yet. I guess he just hasn't given the right donation.
|
Ivan:
[1:56:17]
| Yeah, I'm like wondering, I mean, when they, I mean, I'm like.
|
Sam:
[1:56:20]
| Fully doesn't he have any of those gold bars left? Come on. Come on.
|
Ivan:
[1:56:25]
| Yeah, I mean, I am shocked, shocked still to this moment that Menendez has not been part, Anyway, we digress. We were trying to end the show.
|
Sam:
[1:56:33]
| Oh, yes. End the show. Okay. Thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll talk to you next week. Have a great week. Stay safe. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We just had Juneteenth. Happy Juneteenth, I guess.
|
Ivan:
[1:56:46]
| Happy Juneteenth. Unless you're Donald Trump who said, I don't know, something just—.
|
Sam:
[1:56:50]
| There are too many holidays where people don't work. Go fucking work, bitches. People need to work more. I didn't get the day off.
|
Ivan:
[1:56:56]
| I did. My company gave the day off.
|
Sam:
[1:56:59]
| I am jealous. But apparently we have too many days off. We should all be working more. Be grateful for what we get. You know, so anyway. Okay. Did I say goodbye? Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next week. Goodbye.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:15]
| Bye.
|
Sam:
[1:57:45]
| You know, a few times lately when I've seen headlines about Bannon, I've misread it and thought they were talking about Barron.
|
Ivan:
[1:57:53]
| Oh, well, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:57:55]
| Now, Barron Trump is turning into quite the scumbag himself as he grows up, apparently, but, you know, I guess you can't avoid it in that family.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:04]
| Well, he has been indoctrinated, you know, from an early age, so unfortunately, I mean, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:58:08]
| But, you know, oh well, Baron, Bannon, same damn thing, I guess.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:12]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:58:12]
| Okay, see you later, Yvonne. Goodbye.
|
Ivan:
[1:58:15]
| Bye.
| |
|
