Automated Transcript
Sam:
[0:00]
| Can you hear me?
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Ivan:
[0:01]
| I can hear you. I'm using my other buds that I have that don't have a good battery life.
|
Sam:
[0:11]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[0:12]
| Which is their biggest problem.
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Sam:
[0:14]
| Okay. Well, I'll do our best. Okay. Shall we just go then? Here we go. Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, January 31st, 2026. It's just before 1830 UTC as we're starting to record. I'm Sam Mentor, Yvonne Bow is back with us this week. Hello, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[0:59]
| Hello.
|
Sam:
[1:01]
| It's been an exciting two weeks for both of us.
|
Ivan:
[1:05]
| Oh, God. Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah.
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Sam:
[1:10]
| Yeah. So anyway.
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Ivan:
[1:11]
| How are you? Well, let's start with you. How are you feeling?
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Sam:
[1:14]
| I am recovering. My energy is still a little bit low. I've still got a tube sticking out of my side.
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Ivan:
[1:24]
| Nice.
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Sam:
[1:25]
| They're supposed to call me Monday to make an appointment to get it taken out and finish up all the other stuff they have to do to me. But I'm basically feeling okay. Just a little low energy. Like, you know, I get tired easily. You know, that kind of stuff. I've been sleeping a lot.
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Ivan:
[1:43]
| Is it like Jeb style, low energy or?
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Sam:
[1:47]
| Yeah, definitely Jeb style. No, I, you know, but basically I'm feeling okay, you know, so I've, they, they, you know, I'm still taking antibiotics three times a day, you know, fun stuff like that, you know, but, But, yeah, like, much, much better than I was.
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Ivan:
[2:11]
| Ah, great.
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Sam:
[2:12]
| So.
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Ivan:
[2:13]
| That's good. Well, that's good. I mean, but what do the doctors say about next steps, I guess, at this point?
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Sam:
[2:22]
| Oh, well, the next step is they take.
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Ivan:
[2:24]
| Aside from getting the tube out.
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Sam:
[2:25]
| They take my tube out. They take out a couple kidney stones that were in there causing problems. And then that's it, I guess. They may once again, like, this is a new doctor looking at this for the first time, so they may once again, you know, give me general advice on, like, you know, hey, maybe just diet a little bit here or there. Maybe drugs, like, for, like, kidney stone prevention. I don't know. So, I mean, you know, multiple doctors have talked to me about this since I was 25 years old and never really given me anything super actionable other than deal with them when they happen. But we'll see. Another doc will give a shot at it, I guess. Well, I guess my question is.
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Ivan:
[3:15]
| I don't know. I mean, has treatment for this really changed in that time span?
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Sam:
[3:24]
| I gather not really.
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Ivan:
[3:27]
| Okay.
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Sam:
[3:27]
| And, you know, but, you know, and this is the first time, like, they suspect my kidney and bladder infections, the root cause, where there were a couple kidney stones that got caught. They weren't too big to pass, but they got caught in a position where they weren't moving any further. And they were just causing problems. You know, they were actually still in the kidney, but they were in a part of the kidney where they couldn't get out and they were, you know, just sitting there getting infected.
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Ivan:
[4:05]
| Nice.
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Sam:
[4:06]
| Yeah.
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Ivan:
[4:07]
| Very nice.
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Sam:
[4:08]
| And so, yeah, so they're going to go and fish those things out whenever my next appointment is. I don't have the appointment yet. I called yesterday to, like, make the appointment. I was like, they said call in a week if I hadn't heard from you guys, and I haven't heard from you guys, so I'm calling now. And they're like, eh, we'll call you Monday. So now I have to go.
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Ivan:
[4:33]
| I wonder, what are kidney stones made out of?
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Sam:
[4:37]
| They come in a variety of different kinds. Often calcium, but there are other types as well. So, and I forget. I have had a couple of mine over the years sent to the lab and, you know, but I forget. Like what? I think I've had some calcium ones. I think I might have had something else too. I don't know. It's been years. Like way back, like decade plus ago. I see.
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Ivan:
[5:04]
| I'm looking it up. I caught a couple of them.
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Sam:
[5:05]
| Sent them to the lab.
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Ivan:
[5:06]
| Kittany stones are crystallized minerals, mostly consisting of calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate. Yep. It's not like we could mine you for minerals, I guess. We can't use you to make car batteries or something. Fuck.
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Sam:
[5:24]
| No, that would be nice.
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Ivan:
[5:26]
| I mean, I was just hoping we could just milk you for, like, you know, start making, like, batteries for electric vehicles or something. Maybe that's, like, an industry that we could do.
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Sam:
[5:37]
| That would be nice. I am looking for side gigs.
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Ivan:
[5:43]
| Yes. You know, you could just, you know, you could just, you know, spew out rocks that we could turn into, you know, you know, EV batteries. I mean, that sounds like a, you know, pretty good idea, but apparently not.
|
Sam:
[5:57]
| There's a plan. No, no, it doesn't work that way.
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Ivan:
[6:01]
| No, it doesn't.
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Sam:
[6:02]
| You know, it's not, it's not like I'm putting out platinum or something.
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Ivan:
[6:06]
| Damn it. Gold, platinum, silver, something.
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Sam:
[6:12]
| Okay, so enough about me. What's the update on your family? I did mention to folks, you know, last week that your son had an issue.
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Ivan:
[6:20]
| Here's how this went. Friday night, Manu was going out to our balcony where we have this hammock, which he does all the time. Okay? And I think he was, he just... Was just tripped accidentally on the sliding door frame. So, you know, we have a glass slider that goes out there, but this being Florida and us having upgraded the windows here, it's impact glass slider. So it's meant to withstand hurricane strength winds without you having to cover it with shutters or anything, okay? So one of the things about that is that the frame itself is a lot But it makes it that there is a big threshold step in front of it. Because so if the wind pushes on the glass, so it stays in place. Okay. It won't. Because one of the things that happens with like old regular sliding doors is that the winds will pop it out of the usual rails. The usual rails are there. You know, old sliders, you could just, like, lift up and, like, off the rail and, like, take out pretty easily. But this is meant, no.
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Ivan:
[7:37]
| If you want to take this out of its rails, it needs, you know, you need specialized tools. And it's meant to, like, withstand the force of a Cat 5 hurricane, okay? So, and the impact of a, I mean, it's not bulletproof. But it will take a very large object at high speed, and it'll slam into it, and it will pop out of the frame, and the glass may shatter, but it'll stay in place, okay? So, he was just, you know, going too fast, tripped, and he had his iPad in his arms, and... And I think it was more important to him and his mind to protect the iPad than to protect the body.
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Sam:
[8:21]
| Mm-hmm.
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Ivan:
[8:22]
| So the iPad was fine. His arm was broken.
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Sam:
[8:27]
| So let me envision. He falls off the hammock. He's heading towards the sliver.
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Ivan:
[8:32]
| No, no, no. He's walking towards the hammock.
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Sam:
[8:34]
| He's walking and he trips.
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Ivan:
[8:35]
| He trips on the sliding door threshold.
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Sam:
[8:40]
| So I was thinking his arm hit the threshold, though. He tripped over the threshold.
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Ivan:
[8:44]
| His arm is just.
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Sam:
[8:45]
| At the floor.
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Ivan:
[8:45]
| Yeah okay quite hard yes and uh i heard the thud and sometimes the thud is he drops something or whatever but then i hear it screaming and i'm like well that's not normal right i you know i was he i've had like a a lot it's not always when people get broken bones, You'll see black and blue marks or something or whatever. Our neighbor who's a paramedic took a look at it. It wasn't swollen. We weren't sure if it was broken or not. And the pain was subsiding. So at first we're like, it might not be broken. Okay? It's not the elbow. He did point specifically to the forearm, to the exact spot where the brake was. Okay. And so we're like, look, let's observe. If it swells, then we got to take some action. Next morning was swollen. So we took him to urgent care and they took an x-ray and it was like i mean it you didn't need a radiologist to figure out it was broken right you could see oh god yeah i was just like playing you know you know plain as day so he said look you need to go to an orthopedic specialist, made some calls i i i was able to get an appointment knowing some people a relative of mine. We were able to get an appointment very quick on Monday afternoon.
|
Ivan:
[10:12]
| He saw him and he said, this needs surgery. I thought for sure. I saw it and I'm like, nah, this is going to need surgery. There's no way. The bone is too... It was so moved off where it needs to be that if we just let it heal there, it was going to heal all wrong.
|
Sam:
[10:30]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[10:32]
| So he needed surgery. So we got out on Monday. They scheduled the surgery. It was Wednesday at... 7.30 a.m. We were there at the hospital and they did the surgery and it was successful. Everything went well.
|
Sam:
[10:43]
| So was this like just push the bones back into the right place or did they have like metal and all that kind of stuff holding in place?
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Ivan:
[10:50]
| They put a plate. They put a plate to hold it in place. And it's a plate that apparently he could stay for the rest of his life because there are two options. He told me those are a prong or some plate.
|
Sam:
[10:58]
| That's going to be the next question. Permanent plate or something they take out later?
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Ivan:
[11:01]
| It's a permanent one. So because he wanted to avoid the one that we had to go back in and do that. So he put a permanent one.
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Sam:
[11:11]
| So you have a bionic kid now.
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Ivan:
[11:14]
| So he's been, you know, resting a lot, sleeping, but his energy has been, he's been reporting very little pain like right now. And, uh, probably he's going to go back to school on Monday. So, but, but he's, you know, he's in a cast. It's going to be six weeks with a cast. And so, you know, but, but he's, he's, he's, he's recovering quite well. So, but, uh, I, uh, I got it, but I, uh, It's a little scary having your child in surgery. I was a little bit like...
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Sam:
[11:51]
| Oh, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[11:51]
| I don't...
|
Sam:
[11:52]
| I mean, I have not had my child in surgery. I have now had my wife in surgery, my mother in surgery, and myself in surgery. But so far, Alex has avoided it, and I'm crossing my fingers it stays that way for a while.
|
Ivan:
[12:04]
| I mean, I... So I was not... I was a little bit... But everything came out fine. So, you know, he's going back to school on Monday, so everything should be fine. So.
|
Sam:
[12:19]
| Wear a cast for a while?
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Ivan:
[12:21]
| Six weeks.
|
Sam:
[12:22]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[12:23]
| Yeah. So. I'm getting a little bit really fucking irritated with the. I mean, I had surgery in November. My father had surgery in December. And now my son had surgery in January. He's getting pretty fucking tired of this shit. Everything. It's fucking, you know, these two weeks, everything, you know... You know, and one thing that I, man, I, this entire era of Trumpism and MAGA-ism, one thing that I've noticed in society that it's unleashed is just a lot more general dishonesty.
|
Sam:
[13:09]
| Okay. I noticed you'd put this on the topic list. Go ahead.
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Ivan:
[13:14]
| Yeah, I did, because I wanted to mention, it's just, Sam, it's just, I am just flabbergasted at just the overall level of just outright dishonesty that people feel emboldened to engage in now. That it's just so much worse. You know, it's like the other day somebody asked about, I don't understand about all these people that actually use their names on social media. And I realize that.
|
Sam:
[13:48]
| Like use their real names?
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Ivan:
[13:49]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[13:50]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[13:51]
| And I realize that a large part of it is that so many people want to be anonymous trolls. That obviously if you use your real name, then you're exposing yourself, right?
|
Sam:
[14:04]
| Well, yes.
|
Ivan:
[14:05]
| Just like the masked fucking ICE agents. Like, there was a thing yesterday. Well, if all these ICE agents said that they have to do their job without a mask, then they're going to quit.
|
Sam:
[14:18]
| So sad.
|
Ivan:
[14:19]
| I'm like... You see what I'm saying, the pattern? It's just everybody wants to be able to be a liar and a con artist and not be accountable for their shit. Or maybe not everybody, but a lot more people than we used to deal with.
|
Sam:
[14:40]
| I was going to say not everybody, but at the same time, you're right that there's certainly a lot of that. And there's certainly a lot of, you know, people wanting to be able to hide behind online personas.
|
Ivan:
[14:54]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[14:55]
| And look, people have always, like, people in entertainment have always had stage names. This is not a new thing, right?
|
Ivan:
[15:02]
| Yeah, but a stage name is one thing. You're showing your face. Everybody knows. You know, you go and, like, somebody uses a stage name. Everybody knows that. Most of the time, that's different. That's marketing, okay? You know, because, you know, I don't know, Felix Unger doesn't sound the same as Shakira. Well, actually, Shakira is a real name. So that's a bad example. Terrible example. OK.
|
Sam:
[15:31]
| Madonna's a real name, too.
|
Ivan:
[15:32]
| Yeah. Madonna's a real name, too. Fuck. So that doesn't work either.
|
Sam:
[15:37]
| But there are lots of examples.
|
Ivan:
[15:40]
| Yeah. But if I can't come up with one because I'm an idiot right now. But, you know, there's lots of examples. Well, here's one, which actually is kind of stupid. Charlie Sheen, because that's not the real name or nor his dad's. They're, you know, they're Estevez is a real last name. But, you know, back then they thought that that name was too Latin. And so therefore, you know, he went with the Martin Sheen. But everybody, you know.
|
Sam:
[16:09]
| Anyway, the point is, yes, like the, there are a variety of places on the internet where you can make up names and be, you know, whoever. I mean, and we know like, there are all kinds of ones that aren't real too, right? They're all the bots and all the people who are running like, you know, 50 different like random accounts.
|
Ivan:
[16:30]
| It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they have burner accounts and they use fake accounts. And now, in a lot of these apps where you go instantly and you can see their profile, where are they based out of? Nigeria. Yes! Susan Thomas, based out of Nigeria. Yeah, right! You know... I, I, I, it's just.
|
Sam:
[16:51]
| It's just, well, I think, I think this all ties into something we've talked about multiple times before, which is the key thing about Donald Trump starting way back in 2015 is he has given the permission structure for people to act up in all kinds of different ways. To open racism, open sexism, open fraud. Lying is fine. Because basically it's showing from the top down that these behaviors have not had any negative consequence for them.
|
Ivan:
[17:31]
| Not just that, they have enabled success, Sam.
|
Sam:
[17:34]
| Yes, yes they have.
|
Ivan:
[17:35]
| They have enabled success.
|
Sam:
[17:37]
| Yes. And so why wouldn't everybody emulate that?
|
Ivan:
[17:41]
| Why be honest why be empathetic why help people losers.
|
Sam:
[17:49]
| Are losers and suckers just like soldiers who went off to war.
|
Ivan:
[17:54]
| Yeah I it's just it's just as I encountered this more and more in like regular daily life it's just really very I and it really it really i have to admit that this really gets to me the societal breakdown in general that we have with this shit but also i i should say that the people of minnesota have also shown us the flip side of this where they have stood so hard their ground in mass that it also gives me hope in one sense because so many of them just wouldn't take the fucking bullshit or take the bait.
|
Sam:
[18:49]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[18:50]
| So, but this is, I do think that the biggest thing that I see, like right now, that I'm encountering on a regular basis, and it's in so many things, it's just that breakdown. And it does bother me. And look, I can say it translates into many levels. I'm talking about people on the road. Okay. on i i it's just people at stores people not it used to be people like would bump into each other, apologizing whatever now it's like almost like fuck you whatever it feels like it it's just these kinds of like little regular interactions where people now feel it's okay to just be an asshole. And I notice it on a daily basis. I've said that one of the things that always...
|
Sam:
[19:57]
| Give some concrete examples without outing anybody or like, you know, specifying anybody who could be identified. What are some examples? Because I'll tell you, I have not noticed this as much in real life, but also... Tend to hide myself away and avoid interacting with other human beings as much as possible. So, you know.
|
Ivan:
[20:20]
| Well, look, airplanes. Okay? Look, just the lack of general courtesy or politeness to your neighboring passengers. Okay? The rise of so many air rage incidents like right now and how much they happen. I see people offboarding an aircraft and people climbing on top of other people to get ahead of them instead of letting the people in front of you go out, for example, on a regular basis on almost every flight. I mean, it's one of those things where it used to be people will be patient and calm and let's wait until, you know, this person over here and whatever. And now it's like, it's like people like almost like stepping over the people in front of them in order to get out of the damn plane.
|
Ivan:
[21:12]
| It's just it's just they are what i'm trying to point out is that they are micro, these are not big aggressions these are microaggressions they're very little but it's just an ever increase in where what you would get before was politeness now you see people just you know not giving a damn about the name about about the neighbors and like they don't expect any backlash from it either. At the supermarket lines, the other day, I don't know, some people, they were too, They were doing some shit the other day at Costco, you know, hopping around people doing stuff or whatever. And I'm like, oh, my love of God, what are you doing? You know, just be patient. Or I'll tell you the one that keeps happening. When I go to pick up medicines at the pharmacy, especially because of how so many people, especially in MAGA, have been aggressive with like health care workers. Oh my god the number of people in front of me like grousing about about the employees and yelling at the employees at the pharmacy counter and i'm just like oh i didn't say anything last time but i know my wife got so pissed off told somebody to shut up because he's yelling at the employees for no reason i mean they were busy or a lot of people and unfortunately it's taking time and well.
|
Sam:
[22:35]
| One one thing i've noticed around here in terms of that specifically is people being more on edge about it because also they're you know we had we had one of the pharmacy chains around here closed completely.
|
Ivan:
[22:49]
| Bartels got.
|
Sam:
[22:50]
| Like bought and then it was closed down and and then we had like and it converted to a cvs or something but everyone's short-staffed and so like there's everything, like, you have to wait.
|
Ivan:
[23:06]
| You have to wait.
|
Sam:
[23:07]
| Like, all the time. Even for the most routine things. Like, and so, there's always a line, there's always people waiting, and so, you know, people's nerves get, you know.
|
Ivan:
[23:19]
| Antsy. But Sam, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, when we had lines like that at shit, this didn't happen. People didn't start regularly yelling at employees like that just because they were waiting. This wasn't a common occurrence. And I know it wasn't a common occurrence because I came from a culture where that actually happened on a regular basis. And one of the things that I was pleased about moving to the continental United States was that that didn't regularly happen. And now we've devolved into where that's gone.
|
Sam:
[23:51]
| Interesting. I wonder how much of this, you know, is also like regional. But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot is nationwide. I mean, just in general, the country is on edge right now. Yeah, and has been increasingly so for the last decade, you know, it does. And so I wouldn't be surprised.
|
Ivan:
[24:13]
| And I've always said culturally leadership matters and people say, whatever. But the reality is that people take the example from the top down. And when your leader is acting the way he is, then this permeates every facet of society.
|
Sam:
[24:32]
| Well, and like I started saying with Trump, it gives permission. Yes. So the people who... You know, otherwise might be restrained. If everyone was sort of like, no, that's just not how you act in public. Yeah. But keep that to yourself, sir. You know, things like that. The people who would otherwise be constrained by that are no longer feeling those constraints.
|
Ivan:
[25:02]
| Nope.
|
Sam:
[25:03]
| And so they feel like, you know, like I said, it's fine to be racist. It's fine to be sexist it's fine to be a jackass in public it's fine to lie in public because why the fuck not donald trump does and like you said not only does it not hurt him it is the secret of his success it.
|
Ivan:
[25:20]
| Is the secret of his success exactly yes fuck.
|
Sam:
[25:23]
| You know and so fucking ridiculous horse shit and And look, there are people out there who are decent people not because they feel constrained, not because they feel they would be punished if they weren't, but because they actually like internally feel that's the right thing to do. But like what I've been learning over the last few years is there are a lot of people who the only possible reason to be good that they can imagine is that they might be punished if they're not. And so if you take away that threat of punishment, then there's no reason to behave well anymore. There's no reason to treat other people nicely. There's no reason to like just generally be a good member of society, you know, because if no one's going to beat you down for not doing that, then why the hell would you do any of that? And, you know. I don't know. I don't know. It's discouraging.
|
Ivan:
[26:25]
| I've noticed that people have no convictions. A lot of people. Or morals. Of any sense. And like you said. That they're very malleable. And, you know, they will show themselves in one way just because it's convenient. But the reality is that deep down they're very dark people. And that's one thing I said about money. That for a lot of people I said, no, money changes people. Nope. Most of those people were complete assholes the entire time. But they felt that they had to behave that certain way because it would jeopardize their.
|
Ivan:
[26:59]
| Their their income their jobs or whatever but it's like elon musk has shown now that he could be a nazi racist and it doesn't jeopardize his wealth you know um whereas before these people would be ostracized instead his stock keeps going up you know i i don't know look i'm somebody of, that has a series of convictions in one way or another and certain things about myself that I am, that is who I am. It doesn't really make a difference, like what is happening to me in terms of life. One thing that I'm consistent is that if you look at a picture of me like from 30, 40 years ago, I pretty much dressed the same as I did 30, 40 years ago. There's very little difference, you know? So I could say the same as Sam.
|
Sam:
[27:56]
| There have been some changes over the years.
|
Ivan:
[27:59]
| Yeah, no, there are some changes, but there is a consistent. And the other day I saw your former boss. Basically, I saw there was a picture of him in the 90s. And now he's dressing like a Bond supervillain.
|
Sam:
[28:13]
| Oh, that former boss. Okay, yes, yes.
|
Ivan:
[28:16]
| And I'm like, what the fuck? What is this shit? And I'm like who does this transformation I don't, it's really weird it's so weird I don't but it shows that so many of these people have no actual like, compass in their life of what the heck is supposed to be what they do what they are why they do it it's so malleable it's so weird.
|
Sam:
[28:52]
| Yeah and you know i i i always you know i i remember thinking about like you know because every once in a while you hear like these you know religious folks especially right-wing religious folks, who are like, you know, well, if you don't believe in God, why wouldn't you kill everybody who you wanted to? You know, if you don't think you're going to go to hell.
|
Ivan:
[29:26]
| They do everything out of fear.
|
Sam:
[29:29]
| I heard one reply to that, which I think was the perfect response, which was, I do. I already kill everybody I want to, which is nobody.
|
Ivan:
[29:40]
| Nobody!
|
Sam:
[29:40]
| I don't want to kill anybody. What are you even talking about? You know? You know, the idea of having, you know, morals that are internal, that are because you believe certain things are right and wrong, and therefore you will do your best to do right and to avoid doing wrong. You may fail sometimes, but you will try. You will do your best. Absolutely. To so many people. I will fail. To so many people.
|
Ivan:
[30:13]
| I will fail.
|
Sam:
[30:14]
| But to so many people, that's alien. It's like, you know, no, morals come from outside. It comes from somebody telling you what you're supposed to do or what you're not supposed to do. And the reason you do it is because of their authority over you and the fact that something bad will happen to you if you don't. And that's what morality is. Morality is constraining yourself to avoid harm from the external authority, whether it be human authority or God or something. And, you know, and the idea of just internally, like, yeah, no, I do this. I do things that are right because they're right to do, not because something bad will happen to me if I don't.
|
Ivan:
[30:59]
| You know, the other day I, I, I, so I was on this business trip two weeks ago, not even not two weeks ago. It was like last fuck it was last week. It feels like it was eternity, but it was like the week before. So somebody that works, one of our pre-sales engineers, he came, he came with me to Puerto Rico. He's, and he was, he's not from Puerto Rico. Uh, and I, I am, he's very young. Okay. He's 28. Okay. So even, I mean, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, this kid's been working like six, seven years.
|
Sam:
[31:32]
| A kid.
|
Ivan:
[31:33]
| Corporate. He's a kid. Dude, he's 28, for God's sakes. So, he started working at HP first as a pre-sales engineer there, and then he's been working over here with us for a few years. You know, and I met him, and I started working with him. And I spent a lot of time, just because I knew he was young, and I'm like, hey, let me coach you about how, how to do these things let me help you now you know sometimes he wasn't look this is the this is a better way to do it you know and i've been like doing some coaching and mentoring and sometimes about life situations he's felt the uh you know questions and i i guided him you know some through some personal situations and other stuff and he asked me some questions i said look this i'll give you some advice you know like if you you know and so here's one thing that he told Spent six, seven years in corporate America Well, corporate, global Not America And he said that That nobody, That he has interacted with And I'm not even his boss Better or whatever Has taken the time to Care about him personally like I have, And that I didn't realize that he lost his father when he was five years old. And he said that right now he feels like, do you realize that you're the closest that I've had? I'm working for a few years. Are you the closest I feel like I've had to a dad?
|
Sam:
[33:01]
| Aww.
|
Ivan:
[33:04]
| But here's the one thing that kind of like, well, I felt very touched by that. But the one thing on the flip side, what I thought is, fuck, this kid's very good. Nobody, nobody take the time to care for this kid. Nobody. Anybody. I mean, apparently his stepdad also was a douche. But it's the one thing I'm like, geez, just nobody cares about people anymore.
|
Sam:
[33:29]
| Well, that's all very exciting.
|
Ivan:
[33:32]
| I'm saying nobody. I'm exaggerating. But that very few people seem to care about others anymore. Or won't take the time.
|
Sam:
[33:43]
| Should I do a couple movies?
|
Ivan:
[33:45]
| Yeah, let's do the movies. Come on.
|
Sam:
[33:47]
| Okay. First up, continuing on the AFI list, the 1998 version of the AFI list. And by the way, I continue to give an update on we have now actually started the 2007 version of the list. And we started at 100 and are already back to number 89. So we've gone 100 and back to 89 in the 2007 version of the list. But in the 1998 version of the list, we actually just started, that movie last night. We're 10 minutes in. We're going to continue to do it. Anyway, but today, today I'm going to talk about the number eight list from 1980, 1998, which was On the Waterfront from 1954. Ever seen this movie, Yvonne?
|
Ivan:
[34:47]
| No.
|
Sam:
[34:48]
| This is Marlon Brando, and I'll rather, rather, start the plot as I usually do. First two paragraphs from Wikipedia, the plot. New York prizefighter Terry Malloy's career was cut short when he purposely lost a fight at the request of mob boss Johnny Friendly. Terry now works for Friendly's labor union as a longshoreman, while his older, more educated brother Charlie is Friendly's right-hand man. Terry is coerced into luring fellow worker Joey Doyle onto a rooftop where he believes Friendly's henchmen want to talk Joey out of testifying to the Waterfront Crime Commission. When they instead murder Joey by throwing him off the roof, Terry confronts Friendly but is threatened and bribed into acquiescence.
|
Sam:
[35:39]
| Joey's sister Edie and priest Father Barry try to inspire the dock workers to stand up to Friendly. Terry attends the meeting as a snitch, but when it is violently broken up by Friendly's men, he helps E.D. Escape and misses Father Barry, convincing one worker to testify. After the testimony, the worker is killed in a staged workplace accident, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And then things continue. So basically... You know, it's a mob movie, and it's about one guy who, you know, ends up going against, you know, the mob authorities and what happens to him.
|
Sam:
[36:20]
| And, you know, it's number eight on the top movies list. I'll give it a thumbs up. It was fine. It was fine. It was fine.
|
Ivan:
[36:28]
| You sound so thrilled. It was fun. You know, hey, how was the meal? Well, it was fine. It was edible.
|
Sam:
[36:38]
| Let's see. Somebody mentioned to us. It won all kinds of things. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Story, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing. It won, you know, other awards from other folks, Golden Globes, Directors Guild, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It won lots of awards. And look, it was a good, well-crafted movie. You know, it was very much sort of the 1950s style movie, but, you know, it was enjoyable. I will give it a thumbs up. I will, you know, if I was doing my own ranking, would it be top 10? No, but it was a good movie. It was a good movie. It was worth the watch. And I watched this back in, what, February? Almost a year ago? No, March. March. We're in March now. So, you know, still almost a year ago, but not quite as close. And, you know, like, do I remember tons and tons of it? No. Did I need to remind myself with a Wikipedia page? Yes. But, you know, it was good. It was fine. I keep saying fine.
|
Ivan:
[37:50]
| It was fine. The ringing endorsement. It was Siskel and Ebert ringing endorsement. How was the movie? It was fine.
|
Sam:
[37:59]
| So let me do a second fine movie. This was not on the AFI Top 100 list, which was from 1999. Star Wars episode one, the Phantom Menace.
|
Ivan:
[38:13]
| Uh-huh.
|
Sam:
[38:14]
| So, of all the Star Wars movies, this is the weakest, I think, you know, even in, even including like things like Solo and things like that. I, I will, I will actually move towards giving this a thumb sideways.
|
Ivan:
[38:35]
| Really?
|
Sam:
[38:36]
| Yeah. Like I, you know, This was last March. Watched it again. Don't.
|
Sam:
[38:48]
| Look, you can't watch Star Wars without watching episode one. But at the same time, I mean, I guess you could. Some people do skip it. But.
|
Sam:
[38:59]
| So, but I think of all of them, it is the one that is clearly the weakest. It's got the least rewatchability. I know last year you mentioned you'd watched it with Manu. You know, what's his name? The stupid Jar Jar Binks is really annoying and stays annoying. Like, he hasn't grown on me over the years or anything. And I feel bad for the actor who like got so much shit for Jar Jar Binks that he was like suicidal for a while. He's doing better now. But, you know, it's just like I remember watching it when it first came out and coming out actively disappointed. Now, we have talked on this show before about how one of the things with the prequels specifically for people of our generation is George Lucas specifically did not make them for us. He was not making movies for the people who watched Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi when they were new and had grown up and were now adults. He was making them for the kids of that era.
|
Sam:
[40:21]
| And one of the things I have seen is over the years, like the, the, the, the prequels in general, but I think even more so for two and three, but even for one, the, the actors and such in them who got, got a lot of crap at the time from people of our generation.
|
Sam:
[40:42]
| Have now felt they feel much better because now people who were kids in 1999, and the early 2000s when the first one came out, come up to them and tell them how important the movies were to them and how much they liked them and how they were great and how they made their childhood, etc., etc. Because again, these movies when they came out in, you know, 1999 for the first one and early 2000s for the later ones were intended for people who were, you know, age 8 to 13 or something like that. That was who George Lucas was really aiming at the whole damn time with the original Star Wars and with the prequels. Newer Star Wars since then has morphed in a variety of different ways. And so it, it, it wasn't aimed directly at nostalgia bait for Gen Xers or whatever. And, and, but, but still.
|
Sam:
[41:52]
| I think one was still kind of weak. It was, you know, there were whole portions of it that you were like, the whole pod race, for instance, was like, okay, this is about selling toys. This is about selling video games.
|
Ivan:
[42:06]
| I like the pod race. I don't know. You guys are really seriously hard on this stupid movie. I like this damn movie.
|
Sam:
[42:14]
| Although even you admit it, it's a stupid movie. But yes.
|
Ivan:
[42:17]
| But they're all stupid movies in a certain sense. Come on, man. It's a fucking, you know, it's an entire story is, you know, it's ridiculous. But, you know, it's entertaining. I liked it. I don't know. I think it gets too much shit. Like you said, I think, and I think that you hit the nail on the head why you get so much shit. It's because of how George Lucas designed it. And I think that so many, it's really polarizing because of that, because the, the, the old fans expected it to be made to them. And it really, he was like, no, I'm making it for people right now because it's been 30, 40 fucking years. And I'm targeting, you know.
|
Sam:
[43:06]
| At the time, I believe it had been 16 years since Return of the Jedi. So not 30 or 40 years. Wait, wait, wait.
|
Ivan:
[43:16]
| Yes, I'm... Hang on, I'm looking up the list.
|
Sam:
[43:17]
| Phantom Menace was released in theaters May 19th, 1999, almost 16 years after Return of the Jedi, which I believe was 84.
|
Ivan:
[43:25]
| Phantom Menace was out in 99? Fuck, man. It's that old? It's 27 years old? The fucking hell?
|
Sam:
[43:35]
| Yes.
|
Ivan:
[43:41]
| It's 27 years old?
|
Sam:
[43:44]
| Yes, it is.
|
Ivan:
[43:46]
| Jesus fucking Christ.
|
Sam:
[43:48]
| The other thing I'll say about Phantom Menace is it was also very obvious, like, that George Lucas was playing with his new CGI toys.
|
Ivan:
[43:56]
| Well, yeah.
|
Sam:
[43:58]
| Yeah, so.
|
Ivan:
[43:59]
| But, you know, here's the one thing, though. For all the criticism, it really didn't impact box office at all. Because it did do over a billion at the box office.
|
Sam:
[44:10]
| Mm-hmm. So, I mean, I went. I went on opening day, I think.
|
Ivan:
[44:17]
| Okay.
|
Sam:
[44:17]
| You know, I lined up for the damn thing with the whole family. And we went, and it was a big event. Maybe not opening day. Maybe. We usually, for things like that, like, wait just a little bit.
|
Ivan:
[44:29]
| Wait, what whole family? What are you talking about? You weren't. I wasn't married.
|
Sam:
[44:34]
| You weren't married. I went with Brandy and Amy. I went with Brandy and Amy.
|
Ivan:
[44:37]
| Dude, dude, dude. 99? 99?
|
Sam:
[44:41]
| Oh, wait. the fuck are you talking about.
|
Ivan:
[44:42]
| You didn't know.
|
Sam:
[44:44]
| Them okay maybe it was one of the other prequels maybe it was episode three that i'm remembering i remember the one we went to in florida it's.
|
Ivan:
[44:51]
| Not it's not that.
|
Sam:
[44:53]
| You're right nine you're right 99 was before i met them like i met so i met them in 2003 2004 so around there yeah yeah you didn't even know them so who who where did i see episode I don't I remember seeing episode you were in New Jersey not with them you I know I was in New Jersey you're right I was in New Jersey but I don't remember who I saw it with okay now my memories are all scrambled because because I specifically remember waiting in line with Brandy and Amy but it must have been episode three it had to be episode three.
|
Ivan:
[45:27]
| It had to be episode three no fucking.
|
Sam:
[45:29]
| Way it.
|
Ivan:
[45:30]
| Couldn't have been this one you didn't know them.
|
Sam:
[45:34]
| You're right. You're right.
|
Ivan:
[45:37]
| Jesus Christ, Sam, your memory is...
|
Sam:
[45:41]
| Let's see.
|
Ivan:
[45:42]
| Revenge of the Sith was 2005. I do realize now, like I said, listen, that if I ever get accused of a crime, the two alibi witnesses I need is you and my wife because you guys would be so all over the place, the investigators would be like, the fuck? But their stories... Wait, this guy says he was on a business trip in Spain. The other guy says he was with him in a movie. And we've got a cell phone record to show him is he in Atlanta. What the fuck is all these? What are they talking about? Yes, now I know who the alibi witnesses I'm bringing.
|
Sam:
[46:20]
| Anyway, I'm giving thumbs sideways. You give thumbs up to episode one.
|
Ivan:
[46:24]
| I give a thumbs up. I think it's a good movie. I think it's too much crap.
|
Sam:
[46:28]
| Okay. Okay. With all that, let's take a break. And then I was going to say we'll switch to serious newsy stuff, but we kind of did some serious newsy stuff already. But, you know, and I will say for two weeks now, or three weeks now, the next break is supposed to be an Apple Dream, but I still haven't prepped it yet. So you get like a regular old break. And, you know, maybe next week I'll get to it in time. Like, cause I, cause I have to go grab the right thing and make an audio and put it in and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, here's a break. We'll be back after this.
|
Break:
[47:10]
| You're listening to this podcast do you like it no do you want to support the show no well after you have subscribed to the show followed us on facebook and told all your friends they should be listening to what else can you do i won't subscribe you can help fund our patreon at patreon.com slash curmudgeonscorner. Patreon is a way you can throw us a few bucks a month to help out with the expenses of the show. You know, web hosting, equipment, a little bit of advertising to promote the show, and maybe every once in a while, some much needed sedatives for Yvonne. At different contribution levels, you can get a mention on the show, our curmudgeonscorner postcard, or even a curmudgeonscorner mug. Fun stuff. Not fun! In any case, the contributions help tell us that you enjoy and appreciate the show. I really, really hate Curmudgeon's Corner! Are we worth a buck a month? No! Five bucks a month? No!
|
Break:
[48:19]
| Or if you are nuts about us, maybe even more. One hundred billion! Billion dollars! Even though you don't have anywhere near a billion dollars! If we're worth anything to you at all, send it our way at patreon.com slash curmudgeonscorner. Alex hates, really, really hates, curmudgeonscorner! That's really mean, isn't it? But I hate curmudgeonscorner. But I really do!
|
Ivan:
[48:50]
| Oh, hey, here's a very interesting thing, Sam.
|
Sam:
[48:54]
| Okay, we're back.
|
Ivan:
[48:56]
| Yeah, I just went to the door to get... A package. And the reason I was, like, trying to figure out what the hell this is is because I got a call from our headquarters office.
|
Sam:
[49:15]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[49:16]
| No, I think it was a caller. It was an email. I had notified from our official address in California saying, hey, you got a package. Like, I got a package. I'm a home office. Would you like us to forward you the package?
|
Sam:
[49:34]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[49:35]
| And I'm like, sure. Send it to my house. Okay. So I just got the package. It's a book. But I don't know who's... Why? It... This is the book. I'm showing you this here.
|
Sam:
[49:53]
| Okay. Agent-powered growth.
|
Ivan:
[49:56]
| Deploy AI agents that build your marketing pipeline 24-7. But I... Well, but it doesn't say who sent me the book. It says here sold to a gift for you. Apple Valley, Minnesota.
|
Sam:
[50:15]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[50:16]
| Please enjoy a copy of Stu Joe Werman's new book and visiting Visit readingminds.ai to put AI-powered agents to work for you. Did somebody go and like just...
|
Sam:
[50:29]
| I'm sure you'll get right on reading that. Yeah.
|
Ivan:
[50:36]
| To be fair, I am selling this kind of stuff, okay, to customers. The one thing that I've had an interest, and it's something that actually we've done successfully with certain customers, is actually doing these kind of AI agents for customer service calls and stuff and whatnot. But I'm just curious as to, did somebody decide that I'm going to get like, just for some reason, I'm trying to figure out who the hell would send us all these free copies of this book.
|
Sam:
[51:16]
| Someone who wants to spike the sales of their book? I guess. By buying and selling free copies.
|
Ivan:
[51:23]
| Weird. Okay. All right. I was just very curious as to what the hell the package that came into corporate was, that it's just a book.
|
Sam:
[51:33]
| Okay. Just a book. Okay. So now, I figure maybe we can squeeze in. We're already an hour into the show almost.
|
Ivan:
[51:43]
| And I will tell you that here's one thing, because I mentioned to Sam, I couldn't find my AirPods. I'm using some other headphones.
|
Sam:
[51:50]
| Your batteries are going to die at any moment.
|
Ivan:
[51:51]
| Well, okay. No, we're not doing too bad. It says that we're at 70%. So we're not doing terrible. Okay. All right. We're, you know. So.
|
Sam:
[52:01]
| Okay. Yeah. So just to lay out some of the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks. So first of all, last week I did a 15-minute show. I only talked about my health issues. So yeah, whatever. No real topics. Sorry about that, everybody who doesn't care. But we have from last week that we never got around to talk to. We had Greenland, Smith, the Board of Peace, ICE claiming their memo on they don't need warrants to enter houses, protests. This week, we had apparently, sorta, kinda, sorta, a retreat in Minnesota from ICE and Border Patrol, although I've heard in the last 48 hours that that is less of a retreat than it looked. We've got Don Lemon being arrested. We've got more Epstein files being released. Oh, and by the way, last week, we also had some more accusations that weren't from the Epstein files against Trump and others. We had the raid on Georgia elections. We had a new Fed chair nominee. There was some talk on our conventions corner slack about some announcements out of Tesla. So we got a whole bunch of stuff, Yvonne. Where do you want to start?
|
Ivan:
[53:23]
| Thinking, thinking, thinking. Look, let's start with Minnesota, because we haven't talked about anything of what's happened in Minnesota. So, yes. Well, I heard, you know, like right now, since we are two weeks, you know, we're late right now after the last fucking murder and stuff.
|
Sam:
[53:42]
| Yeah, that had happened right before I recorded last week, and I mentioned it in passing.
|
Ivan:
[53:47]
| I mean, you're saying that there seemed to have been a significant step back in operations. But now you're saying that that's not exactly the case because it seemed that it was, but I don't know.
|
Sam:
[54:09]
| Yeah, well, they sent what's-his-name packing. What's-his-name?
|
Ivan:
[54:13]
| Bovino.
|
Sam:
[54:15]
| Bovino. They sent Bovino packing. The pseudo-Nazi. Yeah, because, I mean, he was literally cosplaying as a goddamn Nazi, wearing like a jacket that looked like an SS jacket and all this kind of stuff. And he was one of... He was not the only one by any means, but he was one of the loud ones in the administration, basically saying, well, if these people had just behaved and done as they were told, they wouldn't have been shot. And it's 100% their fault and they're agitators and whatever. They got rid of him. They brought in the other guy, you know, names.
|
Sam:
[54:53]
| Me and names are bad. but and he sort of initially in the first couple days was like okay i'm gonna talk to walls we're gonna work something out we're blah blah blah walls had a call with donald trump donald trump was saying some you know was also talking about sort of relaxing a bit and then just in the last 48 hours they've ramped up the rhetoric again donald trump has been talking about them as agitators again. There have been, I just saw on social media, like since we've been recording video of another incident where, you know, the, the, the, the federal agents were getting in front of an observer car and harassing them. So it's like, things calm down for a couple of days, but it looks like they're getting, getting antsy again. But also we keep hearing that, okay, they're going to move their emphasis. And I've heard a variety of places. The most recent that I've heard is Ohio, that they're going to basically pull people out of Minnesota, put them in Ohio instead. Yeah, there were other cities mentioned in between. I heard Phoenix once.
|
Ivan:
[56:00]
| Yeah, I heard Arizona.
|
Sam:
[56:01]
| Right. Yeah, I heard Arizona, heard Philadelphia, heard a couple other places. But the most recent is, oh, Ohio will be next. And so it's unclear. But what, you know, as you said, the folks in Minnesota are not backing down.
|
Ivan:
[56:21]
| No.
|
Sam:
[56:22]
| They're in the streets. They're organized. I've heard people talking about how, well, first of all, you know, again, with the right wing having a hard time understanding what's going on, they keep talking about like, well, who's bankrolling this? This is organized at the highest levels, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. because they can't even imagine the fact that people are self-organizing at the grassroots level because they're actually outraged by what's happening.
|
Sam:
[56:55]
| And I think this is one of the things where Miller and all of these folks just don't understand. They expect that really everybody agrees with them. Really, everybody wants these foreigners out. And it's just these weird liberal provocateurs who say anything else, right? But no, like, apparently the reports on the ground are practically like every business and shopping, every like coffee shop or small business you go into, there are people sort of organizing and being like, okay, who's going to be the lookout? Who's going to do this? Who's going to do that? and people in neighborhoods self-organizing on how to like try to provide groceries to people who are afraid to leave their home right you know try to get kids to school where they can you know things like this and it really is just neighborhoods self-organizing to protect their neighbors and and and the, The administration-type MAGA folks apparently just can't comprehend this.
|
Sam:
[58:12]
| But this is continuing. You know, ice raids have not stopped. They might have slowed down a little bit, but they certainly have not stopped. And the protective details and the ice watchers are still out in force. And so it's still a potentially explosive situation that could blow back up again at any moment.
|
Ivan:
[58:36]
| But here's one thing, right? Right. And I'm not having clarity on the impact right now because we are in a government shutdown right now. OK.
|
Sam:
[58:45]
| Yes. Officially, officially it started at midnight last night, Eastern Time, because the what the Senate passed something to extend for two weeks. Only two weeks, by the way. But the House is like, oh, we'll get to it early next week. So we are officially in a partial shutdown because some portions of the government have been funded at this point.
|
Ivan:
[59:11]
| Right. And the thing is that part of it is that the shutdown includes DHS, okay, at this point.
|
Sam:
[59:19]
| Well, but here's the thing. The actual on-the-ground agents are considered essential blah.
|
Ivan:
[59:25]
| Blah, blah. I know. But it's impacting operations. But the one thing is that I guess the key thing here is that Senate Democrats are like, And people have a line behind either there has to be significant changes based on on what DHS is doing or we're not funding or we're not continuing with the funding. And that's, you know, now I know that we have had this issue before where we have just buckled over and not gotten much of anything. But I mean, this this is the only way to stop this. They need, you know, like but even Trump is saying that he is open to negotiating about this.
|
Sam:
[1:00:05]
| One key element to watch in these negotiations is that the massive increase in ICE funding was done by the Big Beautiful Bill. It is, in effect, separately from what is being talked about for DHS now. And so you have to look at not just, there's a separate conversation about undoing some of the increases from the big, beautiful bill.
|
Ivan:
[1:00:38]
| Exactly.
|
Sam:
[1:00:39]
| That is separate from the, what, do we put restrictions on? Do we do this? Do we do that? And you've got to watch all of these announcements about what is up for negotiation and what is not. I think the key is we have to pay very close attention as to... What really is included and what is not.
|
Ivan:
[1:01:07]
| I agree.
|
Sam:
[1:01:08]
| And it's not clear right now. Because there is a lot of opportunity here for them to potentially make a quote-unquote agreement that sounds good but has limited actual effect. So you have to look for, you know, are we actually doing something meaningful? And that is both... And look, to do something... We've got the same situation where the only thing the Democrats can do by themselves is filibuster in the Senate and stop things entirely. To actually make a meaningful change, you need to have a decent number of Republicans on board, too. And you have had a handful of Republicans express discontent with what has been going on. But it's unclear if they're enough.
|
Ivan:
[1:02:01]
| Right. And I just saw that a judge in, you know, that the state had filed a suit to block this surge in Minnesota, and the judge did not grant the—, I think that also the petition may have been a little bit too broad, but I don't know.
|
Sam:
[1:02:38]
| Look, one thing, I think that actually was a good sign, whether or not it ramps back up again. The temporary back down by the administration, I think, was a good sign because it meant they were feeling the pressure here. They were feeling the fact Trump's poll numbers, specifically on immigration in general, but also specifically on immigration, have been absolutely tanking. So they've been going through the floor. The the the minnesota folks i think the intention i donald trump has been telegraphing his desire to use what is it the insurrection act right and i i think they had been telegraphing that they essentially wanted to put more and more and more pressure on minnesota almost i'm gonna say almost but not really almost in the hopes they haven't said this explicitly but i think it's fairly clear, in the hopes that violence would break out.
|
Ivan:
[1:03:43]
| Yes. That's been the goal. That's been the goal. Absolutely.
|
Sam:
[1:03:47]
| The goal has been that these protesters would end up, Beating up, shooting something, an ICE or Border Patrol agent or other federal agent involved in this, or they'd start like riots and be burning things down and all of this kind of stuff, and it would get chaotic. And they could blame the protesters on this, and they could then invoke the Insurrection Act and start really cracking down and bringing in even more military force into the area. And as you said earlier, the bait has not been taken.
|
Ivan:
[1:04:31]
| No.
|
Sam:
[1:04:31]
| The folks have been judiciously nonviolent and have been, yes, they've been getting in the way. They've been obstructing. They've been warning people.
|
Sam:
[1:04:48]
| You know, they're blowing the whistles and the apps and signal groups and everything else to sort of warn people where to stay away from. Basically, they've been trying to follow these people around in such a way that makes it impossible for them to act as a, quote-unquote, secret police. Because everyone knows where they are all the time, and someone is always watching them and videoing everything they do. And maybe they haven't succeeded 100%. I'm sure they've done some things that have not been videoed. but that's the goal is to make it very, you know, make it wide open where they are. And if, if that's a problem, you get away from them. And so, but they've been meticulously nonviolent. They have not been causing problems. And so far, every single violent incident, has been the feds killing or beating or otherwise going overboard. There was the video of the kid in the rabbit hat who was abducted along with his father and shipped off to Texas. There was an elderly man who turned out to be completely legal, whatever.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:11]
| Dragged out in his underwear. Dragged out in... In the freezing temperatures. I mean, these people have no fuck. I mean, I'm sorry. You know, even like a police department going in to arrest a murderer, anybody, doesn't do that.
|
Sam:
[1:06:30]
| Right. And so you keep hearing, and, you know, I still have very little sympathy, but you keep hearing from MAGA folks being like, this isn't what I voted for. I just wanted them to get rid of the violent criminals.
|
Ivan:
[1:06:46]
| By the way, I just saw one report that one of the things that the Minneapolis police is like really fed up also with them. It looks like a lot of the police officers are getting fed up. So they have started now ticketing ICE agents for traffic violations.
|
Sam:
[1:07:01]
| I had seen one report of that, but I hadn't seen it confirmed.
|
Ivan:
[1:07:04]
| Yeah. I saw it from somebody else that looks like more credible. Yeah, it seems like the Minneapolis PD is like fucking like, OK, all right. OK, fuck. Listen, this is something that can happen. I've seen this happen. I remember still a story about Miami-Dade police officer being ticketed by state police, OK, for speeding, like on the turnpike that apparently they kept calling. Because apparently there were a few certain people like that work for Miami-Dade police that, oh, well, I I live very far. I want to get to work real fast. So they were doing 120 miles an hour regularly on the fucking turnpike to get to work. Okay. And the state troopers basically just said, had enough of this shit. They started ticketing them all. So this isn't, this is entirely legal. I mean, you can't just violate, just because you're a federal officer, that you have no right to violate all traffic laws.
|
Sam:
[1:08:02]
| Mm-hmm.
|
Ivan:
[1:08:03]
| Okay. There's no such immunity.
|
Sam:
[1:08:07]
| No, no. So, I don't know. I feel like this is, like I said, I think it's a good sign that they backed off because they were feeling the pressure. They were feeling very specifically that this wasn't going the way they expected. They didn't get the violence oh i i should also this is an important point that should not be left unsaid the protesters who were getting shot or roughed up or whatever i mean we added two killed but we had more as well suburban white folks, You know, I guarantee you, the administration was hoping that there would be conflict with black and brown people. And that would be the headlines. Instead, you get like middle-aged white folks. You know, you get an ICU nurse who cares for veterans who was killed. You have a mom who had just dropped her kid off from preschool.
|
Ivan:
[1:09:21]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:09:23]
| You know, and you have other examples. Like there was video that went viral of a really angry old white guy who was upset, who is a local business owner, runs a bookstore. And you have the face of this is not your, you know, a brown immigrant with an accent. Or, you know, an angry black person. No. Which is the stereotypes they were hoping for. Instead, no, it's suburban white folks who are extremely angry and putting themselves on the line and who, to put it bluntly, look sympathetic even to MAGA folks when they see them getting beat up or killed.
|
Sam:
[1:10:23]
| And, you know, so it has not been going the way they hoped. They have not gotten the violent backlash. They have not gotten to crack down in the way they did. They've got sympathetic folks who are winning the PR war. When you poll people about, did they do the right thing when they shot these people? The overwhelming result is no. The percentage saying yes is tiny. And so they're at the very least they're backing off to figure out what to do next but I think there will be a what to do next you know they're you know whether it's Ohio or Philly or Phoenix or here.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:07]
| In Seattle or whatever here is the interesting thing the one thing because they sent Tom Holman right to go and like that's.
|
Sam:
[1:11:15]
| The guy whose name I couldn't remember.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:17]
| Supervise this and one of the things is that it seemed like from some of the internal things that were discussed, that Tom Holman was basically advocating strongly for returning to the Biden-era policies of how they were handling a lot of these cases. Which means, you know, none of this stupid shit like this.
|
Sam:
[1:11:45]
| Because the reality is that in terms of deportations— I feel like that was ascendant for a few days, but now they're retreating again from that.
|
Ivan:
[1:11:53]
| You think that they're retreating from that again?
|
Sam:
[1:11:56]
| Yeah. Because I think that the folks in the administration... I mean, this is the same, like, who talked to Donald Trump last thing, right?
|
Ivan:
[1:12:04]
| No, it's Steve Miller. Let's be clear.
|
Sam:
[1:12:06]
| It's Steve Miller.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:07]
| Steve Miller is focused on maximum cruelty. He doesn't really care. So he thinks that, you know, we need this Gestapo confrontation. But the problem is, you know... Last week, the leading candidate for governor in Minnesota from the GOP basically quit the race.
|
Sam:
[1:12:27]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:12:28]
| And he quit the race because he's not an idiot. He saw the reality of what they are doing right now in Minnesota. And literally, the analysis was that basically that this is destroying the Republican Party in Minnesota. that after this, there is not going to be anything left of the Republican Party in Minnesota.
|
Sam:
[1:12:51]
| So the one special election that happened this week was interesting because it was a very blue district. The Democrat was going to win no matter what. However, it was so blue already, that they expected the Democrat couldn't do any better.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:06]
| Right.
|
Sam:
[1:13:07]
| You know, I believe, like, it was one where I'm not going to remember exact numbers, so these are ballpark.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:13]
| It was a 70-point margin the last time. And this time the margin was like 90-something points.
|
Sam:
[1:13:20]
| It was close to—the Republican got 4%.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:24]
| Percent. The Republican got 4%.
|
Sam:
[1:13:26]
| Whereas last time they got close to 20. So, you know, this is still like, again, very blue district, but it was so blue, no one figured it could go more blue. But it did.
|
Ivan:
[1:13:41]
| Yeah. I mean, but like, I mean, basically that it literally, I mean, almost no, I mean, the Republican support got down to 4%, Sam. Four. Four. I've never seen anything like that.
|
Sam:
[1:13:56]
| So, anyway, I feel like they are, I don't know, like, you mentioned Miller. He was apparently posting again today. The latest post from a few hours ago. From Stephen Miller. Plenty of countries in history have experimented with importing a foreign labor class. The West is the first and only civilization to import a foreign labor class that is granted full political rights, including welfare and the right to vote. All visas are a bridge to citizenship. In America, for generations now, the policy has been that anyone who would economically benefit from moving to the U.S. Can do so, exercise the franchise in the U.S. and their.
|
Sam:
[1:14:41]
| Are born will be full you full american citizens with all the rights and benefits therein now of course i hear this and i'm like awesome this is what makes america great uh but miller people are interpreting his statement is basically like this would be fine like we want to go back to that where we import people as slaves or indentured servants or at the very least second class non citizens, like is done in many parts of the world today. And it's like, this is one of the core elements of Millerism and what MAGA is right now, is this, it's plain, flat-out white nationalism that the only true Americans are European Americans, and everybody else doesn't really deserve to be here, and it's a shame we ever let them be citizens, let alone let anyone knew it.
|
Sam:
[1:15:42]
| And this is the exact opposite. I mean, I'm like, didn't you guys like watch Schoolhouse Rock? The melting pot, like the, you know, I mean, everything. And I don't know. I know this is like not a universal experience, but my indoctrination into what was great about this country was specifically. That it was a country of immigrants, that we took the best from all over the world. And it was the land of opportunity and people would come here.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:21]
| The Statue of Liberty.
|
Sam:
[1:16:23]
| The Statue of Liberty. Well, the Statue of Liberty originally was an anti-slavery thing and only later got the immigrant connotation. But yes.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:34]
| Still.
|
Sam:
[1:16:36]
| Anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:37]
| I mean, still works both ways. Yes, against everything that this asshole's saying.
|
Sam:
[1:16:44]
| Yeah. Anything else about this? I feel like it's... Keep watching. We're not done. I feel like people got a sense of relief that, hey, we won in Minnesota. We're a long ways from done.
|
Ivan:
[1:16:59]
| But I think that the one thing that it's showing to me and why it makes me long-term optimistic. Okay? Not talking about short-term. Is the resolve of the people. Because I do think, and I think many of us may be feared, that the people were going to just, you know, buckle and just give up against this aggression. And the reality is what it has shown to me is completely the opposite. That they are not backing down. That they are not going to be intimidated by agents murdering, you know, citizens. That they're not going to be intimidated by all these, you know, oppressive tactics. That as a matter of fact, it's the opposite. The oppressive tactics have made people get more enraged against this whole thing.
|
Sam:
[1:17:52]
| Well, and I think that this is also a question of, like, the Trump administration's strategy on this. because they've got competing goals, right? Like, one is the theoretic, let's get rid of all the immigrants goal. And frankly, like, if that was the number one goal, they probably wouldn't be starting in Minnesota. Right. It's stupid. It's ridiculous.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:16]
| I mean, it's just, you know, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:18:20]
| And obviously, they didn't start in Minnesota. They've done other things. But the key is, they've been going after blue states and blue cities. Because this is not just about the immigrants. It's about showing it to the damn lips.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:36]
| And, you know, the lips have basically given them a big fat middle finger and said, fuck you, we're not going to stand for it.
|
Sam:
[1:18:44]
| So one approach that the administration could take, I don't think they're going to, but they could take, is like, look, let's do this in parts of the country that are more supportive of us doing this anyway.
|
Ivan:
[1:18:59]
| But that's not going to have that. Okay, here's the thing. If your point is to inflict maximum cruelty on your enemies, that's not going to do it.
|
Sam:
[1:19:10]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:12]
| That is the primary goal. Because if you look at deportations under fucking Biden and Obama, man, they were the supporting tons of, They were seriously enforcing laws.
|
Sam:
[1:19:30]
| When we did the prediction show, we did identify that it has gone up under Trump.
|
Ivan:
[1:19:36]
| It has gone up, Sam. But think about the amount of money that's been poured into. And what is the net result in terms of deportations? And a lot of the stuff. And are they deporting the people that they said they did? A lot of the shit that they are doing right now, Sam, is they are taking people that are here legally and turning them into illegal people. They are here legally.
|
Sam:
[1:20:02]
| Like the rumor is, for instance, on the Ohio thing for next week is they'll specifically go after Haitians.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:09]
| Haitians.
|
Sam:
[1:20:10]
| Because the Haitians who are, as of today, here legally under temporary protective status. But that temporary protective status is due to expire next week, and the administration is choosing not to renew it.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:27]
| Exactly, because Trump is choosing to make them now illegal.
|
Sam:
[1:20:30]
| Right. So it's people who had been legal were all settling— Because.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:33]
| Oh, Haiti is safe and fine, you know, so we can send them all back there.
|
Sam:
[1:20:37]
| Right.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:38]
| Which is insane.
|
Sam:
[1:20:40]
| And so they will suddenly become illegal next week, and the administration will start going after them.
|
Ivan:
[1:20:47]
| Right. Right. But this is what I'm saying. This is not going after criminals. This is terminating people's legal status and then using cruelty to get them out of the country.
|
Sam:
[1:21:01]
| Right. Okay, let's move on. I want one more topic, and I am going to make it the Epstein files and what's going on with those. So we had another big tranche released, 3 million-some documents. But interestingly, apparently the administration signaled, this is 3 million out of 6 million, but we're still, we're actually done. The other 3 million are all things we think we have right to not release for one reason or another. This latest batch has a bunch of additional stuff. People are still going through the 3 million.
|
Sam:
[1:21:45]
| One element, and I know I've said this on the show before, but I think it's important to reiterate again. There are a number of things here that are, super scandalous, directly against Donald Trump accusations, direct accusations of him abusing minors. There have been other places that have accused him of being present at murders. There have been all kinds of things. And for the most part, the major media is keeping a very far hands off mentioning that they're sort of scandalous things, but there's no evidence to back them up, et cetera. And there isn't. These are reports of people calling into tip lines with allegations for the most part.
|
Sam:
[1:22:39]
| But what I don't, I keep saying the issue here, no, of course you can't jump straight into, is that accusation true? You can't start saying, oh, of course this is true. But what you should be looking at is, is there evidence the accusation was taken seriously and looked into in depth and ruled out? Like some of the summary tables they have, have a single line that say, the accuser was deemed not credible.
|
Sam:
[1:23:15]
| Okay, tell me more. Why? Why was this not backed up? Did you just say, ah, this is a ridiculous charge, click? Or did you actually look into it in any sort of way, just try to back it up? I saw references to one of these that was apparently not followed. Well, one of the things is, in some of the cases, we don't know if they were followed up. What if the remaining three million documents shows that they did follow it up and then determined that it was false or whatever. You know, a big part of the story here, I mean, obviously there's all of the abuse itself and it would be nice to get to the bottom of that. But a secondary story that is also incredibly important, is how for decades this was swept under the rug and not followed up and not investigated seriously and people intentionally looked the other way. And now, obviously, you know, now 20 plus years later, it may be hard to get evidence one way or another that could, like, prove any of these allegations.
|
Sam:
[1:24:32]
| So you do have a lot of unsubstantiated allegations. But I think a really important question that people aren't diving into nearly enough, I don't think, is what was or was not followed up on and who made those decisions and why.
|
Ivan:
[1:24:51]
| I mean, I think that's a key thing. And obviously, it's such a volume of files. It's such a huge volume of files. But also, look, the reality is that it brings into question, because of what happened before, and because a lot of the stuff was the incredible, because of the sweetheart deal that Epstein got, it brings into question all of those decisions in the first place. That all of these were not credible. when it's been shown that a lot of them were.
|
Sam:
[1:25:22]
| Yes, I think that that's the fundamental thing is the default assumption going back decades on, I mean, this goes to the Me Too movement too with just women and sexual harassment in general, but very specifically in terms of these, the default assumption of the authorities going in was none of these accusations was credible. And this is just some random person trying to ruin the life of an important person or maybe get some money out of a settlement or whatever. And so the default was, of course, they're making this shit up. This is ridiculous. This would not actually be happening. And so all kinds of things were deemed non-credible and were not followed up that clearly should have been. And so you see a lot of these things where, look, you read some of these, you know, one of the accusations against Donald Trump was that he had Epstein procure for him parties with a bunch of underage girls that he would evaluate sexually and their details in the accusation. And is there any backup or proof of this? No, not right now, but is there lots of.
|
Sam:
[1:26:51]
| Circumstantial. Like, we know there are stories about him doing similar things at his own damn beauty pageants. This is not that much of a stretch further. Is it believable? Yes. Do we know it's true? No. The question to me on all of these is, did someone take it seriously and dig into it and investigate? And I think in most of these cases, the answer is actually no. Because the one thing we're not seeing in these damn files is, oh, okay, here's the investigation we did that exonerated these people. That said, oh, they were accused of this, but we looked into it and actually X, Y, Z, Q, it could never have happened. He was not in the right city at the right time. There were witnesses that put him elsewhere. The person in question has a history of lying, blah, blah, blah, whatever. We are not seeing that. And you'd think they'd be in a hurry to get out that kind of information if it was there.
|
Sam:
[1:27:57]
| And, you know, so we're left in this, like I've said for months and months and months now that the probable truth in these files is that there's lots of accusations, but very little proof. And so when they say there's nothing chargeable here, they're probably correct. You know, there's nothing with enough evidence to charge a specific thing. But I think that's actually part of the scandal. Is why was this let alone and not investigated at the time when these allegations were fresh so that something could be done about it? And I think there probably are all kinds of people under NDAs who had monetary settlements and stuff like that, and there should be an effort to legally break those. Because generally speaking, NDAs are not enforceable if they're covering up a crime.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:02]
| That's correct.
|
Sam:
[1:29:03]
| You know?
|
Ivan:
[1:29:04]
| That is correct. And, I mean, the other thing is that if the NDA was executed between Epstein and their state and the party, the Epstein and state can release them from the NDA. And, I mean, the receiver, the signer of the NDA could choose to break it. Period. You know, and, oh, let the Epstein estate try to sue them over it. You know what I'm saying? I mean, and we know.
|
Sam:
[1:29:30]
| I mean, the whole thing with, you know, Stormy Daniels and all was about Trump in an NDA as well. Trump has not been a stranger to NDAs to shut up people with embarrassing information.
|
Ivan:
[1:29:43]
| Exactly. So, you know, they can be broken. So that shouldn't really be a consideration at this point.
|
Sam:
[1:29:51]
| But, I mean, the honest situation at this point, though, is if someone was going to be doing that kind of pushing, it would be DOJ, and DOJ's not about to do any of that stuff.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:02]
| Oh, no, DOJ, you know.
|
Sam:
[1:30:05]
| So, I mean, if anything.
|
Ivan:
[1:30:07]
| They are further— DOJ's not going to do any to try to get to the bottom of this.
|
Sam:
[1:30:10]
| However— They are further participating in the cover-up. Even with the law that was passed, which, as we have found out as well, does not have teeth on it. Like the fact that they have been in violation of this law for more than a month because they have not released everything, they have not followed the guidance. And by the way, they've claimed they needed all this extra time to properly redact victims' names, but they're not. Every single release has been exposing victims' information. They're not doing a good job at that either. And at this point, I'm not willing to give the benefit of a doubt. I figure it's intentional, you know? Exactly what they redact or not redact. I'm not like, yes, there are a bunch of stupid people here. There are a bunch of people who don't know what they're doing. But a lot of this stuff, I'm like, they did that on purpose.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:08]
| Hey, I just realized that you did the movie reviews and you didn't do a movie review on Melania.
|
Sam:
[1:31:17]
| I have put it on my list, though.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:19]
| It is on your list?
|
Sam:
[1:31:21]
| It is on my list.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:22]
| So what, it may be done, you know, in about 30 years?
|
Sam:
[1:31:26]
| 30, 40 years, I'm sure I'll get to it, yeah.
|
Ivan:
[1:31:29]
| That will be quite surprising as we're like, I don't know, we're recording this podcast at age 85. And all of a sudden Sam, oh, movie review! Melania! And I'm like, fuck. Really? Now? Really? You know.
|
Sam:
[1:31:48]
| So, by the way, speaking of Melania, and going back to the Epstein files, this latest batch has a bunch with additional people on it. So, Melania is in there. We have not yet had, a hundred percent validation of what a few people have been saying that Epstein actually like was the one who introduced Melania to Donald Trump in the first place. But we do have apparently some emails between Melania and Maxwell, but we also have other folks too. So let's start out with Yvonne. My prediction on the two to 2026 prediction show was that the person other than Donald Trump who would be further exposed in the Epstein file, I predicted Bill Gates. Is there anything about Bill Gates in this latest drop?
|
Ivan:
[1:32:43]
| Well, to be fair, it wasn't about pedophilia. It was, I mean, it was, it was, it was bad, but it wasn't pedophilia. It was apparently he banged some Russian hooker and apparently got an STD.
|
Sam:
[1:32:58]
| Plural, I think, plural.
|
Ivan:
[1:32:59]
| Yeah, hookers, plural. And I guess he wasn't careful. And he got an STD.
|
Sam:
[1:33:06]
| And he asked Epstein for help in getting pills that he could surreptitiously give his wife without his wife knowing.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:18]
| Fuck me.
|
Sam:
[1:33:20]
| Fuck it out. You'd think somebody like Bill Gates would have actually lots of places he could surreptitiously get pills if.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:26]
| He wanted them. Not ask this monster. God. Okay. Well, you know, I think that, look, let's just say this. It's pretty clear why Melinda got a divorce.
|
Sam:
[1:33:41]
| Yes, yes. She's been open for a while that it was Epstein related.
|
Ivan:
[1:33:46]
| But what I'm saying is, I know it was, but this just provides a fuller picture of that. Oh, God.
|
Sam:
[1:33:57]
| We've also got Elon Musk in there many times. Apparently like asking for what the best time to come to the island is for a wild party.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:06]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:34:07]
| We got some football owner. I don't even know those folks, but some football owner is in there.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:13]
| Steve Tisch, who is a co-owner of the New York Giants, who is part of the Tisch family that owns Lowe's, that used to own CBS.
|
Sam:
[1:34:25]
| Okay.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:26]
| Okay. So, yeah, he was mentioned. It was, yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:34:32]
| We've got some other folks, too. And like I said, there was a whole bunch of Donald Trump stuff. Abuse of minors.
|
Ivan:
[1:34:40]
| Yeah.
|
Sam:
[1:34:41]
| Abuse of non-minors. Rape. We had that. I saw. Rape. We had, and it wasn't part of the Epstein files, but I will mention on here, Last week going around on the social medias was an interview with some guy who claimed to be a male victim of Epstein that also had all kinds of additional allegations against Donald Trump and a whole bunch of other folks. And again, these are sexual abuse of minors, but going beyond that into murders, animal cruelty even, like all kinds of stuff. And again, this is all the same scenario where it's an allegation, but without any backing information. So the question, again, becomes, was it investigated? Is anybody going to investigate it? Is anybody going to dig in or not? Like, maybe none of it's credible. Maybe none of it's credible. But what I want to see is proof that somebody actually took it seriously and looked into it at some point in time. Any of these. And who else? Any other names that strike you that were in this week's batch?
|
Ivan:
[1:36:00]
| Not that jump out to me, like right now, no, not at this point.
|
Sam:
[1:36:05]
| Well, and again, the administration is apparently now saying that they're essentially done releasing these files, even though there are apparently at least 3 million more documents unreleased. And so the question is, what, if anything, can anybody do about it? This seems to be another example where there's a question of who, if anybody, has standing documents, Do they pass another law?
|
Sam:
[1:36:30]
| Do, you know, who can sue them, if anybody? And if they do sue them, what's the route? One of the Congress folks, a couple of the Congress folks went to court trying to say, trying to get a special master appointed, said, we can't trust DOJ to do this. Let's get a special master in here, do it instead. The particular judge said that the specific case they were trying to attach themselves to do this was not appropriate. They could not do that. They could go try again a different way. But there are apparently all kinds of questions about, like, generally speaking, individual Congress people don't have standing to sue for these kinds of things. They've lost in court for that kind of thing before. So if Congress really wanted to do something about it, Congress would have to act as a whole once again, which means you need majorities again. You need to be able to pass the law again. And they did this, and it passed by an overwhelming majority. But it's unclear they could do that again. You know, so I don't know. My gut feeling is that the 90% of the worst things that we've heard in these allegations are probably true.
|
Sam:
[1:37:52]
| There may be some bit at the top, but, you know, you may have a few folks who are in there because, you know, it was pointed out. I was listening to a conversation. I think it was on, oh God, I have to say, MSNOW.
|
Sam:
[1:38:09]
| God damn, like, you know, I know they had divorced from NBC, but still, whatever. Anyway, there was a conversation on there and they were talking about how in the Kavanaugh case, if you remember, there was a period of time when they just said, here's a tip line. Call in with anything you know about Kavanaugh. And while there were a handful of real accusations against Kavanaugh, apparently that tip line was full of absolute shit of people calling in with stuff that was absolutely 100 percent made up, was impossible scenarios at impossible times where the players were not even in those places. And it was just people calling in because they hated Kavanaugh making shit up.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:00]
| And I'm sure you have- A tip line like that is not the best way to be gathering really information.
|
Sam:
[1:39:05]
| Well, and a lot of these accusations that we're talking about that are the most out there are from a tip line that was set up around 10 years ago on Epstein and Trump-related stuff. Specifically Epstein-related stuff. Yeah, but here's my point.
|
Ivan:
[1:39:27]
| But, but, but, but, but, there was a difference between what was happening politically with Kavanaugh and, you know, the hearings versus 10 years ago when really the Epstein thing wasn't on most people's radar.
|
Sam:
[1:39:42]
| Well, my point is, though, and like a lot of the calls into there were about Trump stuff, right? My point is, there are a lot of people out there who would find it a fun thing to do to call into a tip line about that and make stuff up about Donald Trump. That is absolutely true. However...
|
Sam:
[1:40:05]
| There is so much that we actually do have evidence about that it's worth following up. And my feeling from hearing what we have gotten out is that most of these things were just not followed up seriously. You know, and there may well be, I would not be surprised in the slightest if there was made up shit in there about Donald Trump from people who just called in and are like, I hate Donald Trump. I'm going to say that he, you know, he raped children and threw babies into Lake Michigan. You know, some stuff may be made up, but I would be willing to bet 90% of the allegations we're hearing about actually were true. They just fit the pattern so damn well with the things that we do know about. They just take it a little bit further. And some of the details do line up. And so, like, at the very least, again, again, I keep coming back to this. At the very least, they deserved a serious investigation where people treated the allegation seriously.
|
Sam:
[1:41:20]
| Looked into it, tried to prove one way or another, you know, what's going on here? Is this bullshit? Or is there something to dig in here further? And maybe some of these things could be outright proven to be false. Maybe some of the things, you know, there's tentative stuff, but we really can't prove a case, but we tried. But at least the attempt should have happened. And I think it's very clear that the attempt did not happen in most of these cases. And that should be looked into as a scandal in and of itself. Who made the call not to take these seriously and look into them further. Anyway. Okay. I think we're done, Yvonne.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:08]
| We're done. We're done. Yep.
|
Sam:
[1:42:10]
| Okay. As usual, go to curmudgeon-corner.com. You can see our archives. You can see all the ways to contact us. You got all the stuffs. All the stuffs. The stuffs. Importantly, you've also... The stuffs. The stuffs. Importantly you've also got a link to our patreon where yvonne and i and a bunch of listeners are hanging out exchanging links doing all that kind of stuff if you give us cash money wait no i said the patreon is where you go to where we're hanging out that's false the patreon is where you go to give us money which is important, because we need money. Money is amazing. Money is great.
|
Ivan:
[1:42:53]
| A lot.
|
Sam:
[1:42:55]
| A lot. Yeah, give us lots. Lots. Anyway, at various levels, we will mention you on the show. We will send you a postcard. We will send you a mug. We will ring a bell, all that kind of stuff at $2 a month or more. Or if you just ask us, we will invite you to the Curbudgeons Corner Slack. And that is where folks have been chatting and all of this kind of stuff. So, Yvonne, do you have a highlight from the Slack for this week? He is unprepared. He is unprepared.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:28]
| Shame.
|
Sam:
[1:43:29]
| Shame.
|
Ivan:
[1:43:30]
| Oh, yes. This one. Elderly lottery winner uses jackpot to build 288 million pound drug empire making pills from his cottage. This guy apparently, you know, we keep hearing the stories about the guys who get a lottery jackpot and roll it broke. No, this guy got a lottery jackpot and decided to invest aggressively. Except it appears that it was a massive drug lab in the stables opposite his cottage somewhere in the UK. A 65-year-old used the facilities to build a sophisticated lab to produce counterfeit medication, estimated to have a street value of up to 288 million pounds.
|
Sam:
[1:44:23]
| I mean, I don't know, Yvonne, if I win the lottery, I mean, what else would I do? I mean, this sounds like the perfect plan. Like, you know, forget all this other stuff. If I can, if I win the lottery, I could become a master criminal. And apparently, why would that not be my plan?
|
Ivan:
[1:44:43]
| Yeah, I guess that's, you know, that was, I mean, he was like, look, but look, in fairness, we criticize and we, you know, So many shows cover all these people that take their lottery winnings and basically blow them. And this guy, I mean, Jesus, quite an entrepreneur.
|
Sam:
[1:45:02]
| There you go. Beautiful.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:06]
| So.
|
Sam:
[1:45:07]
| Okay. With that, we're done. Thank you, everybody, for joining us again. Hopefully, both Yvonne and I are done with our family medical dramas and we can be back normally next week. Right, Yvonne? We're done?
|
Ivan:
[1:45:21]
| Yes.
|
Sam:
[1:45:21]
| I mean, I do have some follow-up procedures to do, but nothing that's unplanned, nothing that should take me out of commission, you know? So, anyway, thanks, everybody, for joining us. Have a great week. Stay safe. Have fun. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. We're out of here. Goodbye.
|
Ivan:
[1:45:44]
| Bye.
|
Sam:
[1:46:14]
| Thank you. Okay, heading stop. See you later, everyone. Bye.
|
Ivan:
[1:46:20]
| All right. Thank you.
| |
|
