Sam: And now we got this boom. Okay. Shall we just go?
Ivan: Yes.
Sam: Yes. Okay. Here comes. I almost forgot that button. Here we go.
Sam: Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, December 14th, 2024.
Sam: It is just before 1830 UTC as we're starting to record. I am Sam Inter.
Sam: Yvonne Boas here. Hello, Yvonne.
Ivan: Hello. Hi.
Sam: You sound exhausted.
Ivan: Dude, seriously. how would i not be fucking exhausted i mean are.
Sam: You kidding me we're gonna do our butt first for first which is just our own
Sam: stuff and then we'll get into newsy stuff in the next two segments so yvonne
Sam: what's been going on that's exhausting you.
Ivan: You know that aside from my wife being sick Aside from me.
Sam: Go ahead.
Ivan: What the hell? I'll just put it on speaker here. This could be on the show. Hello.
Ivan: Yes, you're on the podcast right now. So say hi to everybody.
Juana: Hi, everybody.
Sam: Hi, Wada.
Juana: We are live from my bed.
Ivan: Sam said hi. You can't hear him. I'm sorry. But what? I'm sorry. But what's going on?
Juana: Were you medically able to attend your event on the day you purchased your insurance plan? No, right?
Ivan: On the day you purchased it? Yes.
Juana: But I didn't go to the event.
Ivan: On the day you purchased it, were you able to attend the event?
Ivan: The answer is yes. On the day you bought it, you could go. But now you can't.
Juana: Is the patient included on this plan? Yes.
Ivan: Okay i i i all right can i can i get back to recording a podcast at this point.
Juana: Thank you so much.
Ivan: All right you're welcome okay bye bye,
Ivan: One of the things that my wife is doing right now is filing,
Ivan: you know, I will say she bought tickets to go to a concert next Friday. Okay.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: It is very impractical to go to, she can't go really medically. She can't go.
Ivan: Her leg needs to be elevated and needs to be elevated for an extended period of time.
Ivan: So, so she can't go to a concert. I will say that I usually,
Ivan: you know, you go to, she bought it on ticket.
Sam: For those tuning in for the first time, if they're already a couple of weeks
Sam: ago, your wife had an Achilles tendon injury. And then last week she had surgery for it.
Ivan: That's correct. Okay. And so she, she had surgery, so she, she cannot really,
Ivan: her mobility is severely restricted at this moment.
Ivan: And so my wife had bought these tickets to a concert recent times.
Ivan: It must've been in October. where I really, when my wife goes to buy tickets
Ivan: to a concert, I really shouldn't let her buy tickets to a concert.
Ivan: And the reason I say this is because I keep thinking we're going to go to a
Ivan: music concert and we're not talking for a international superstar.
Ivan: We're talking for a medium star, but not one that is like, it's not like Madonna or something, right?
Sam: You weren't doing the Taylor Swift concert.
Ivan: Exactly. This is not the Taylor Swift concert or anything of the sort. Okay.
Ivan: And my wife, for some reason, just always buys whatever the hell the most expensive
Ivan: tickets that are available. And it's just an eye-watering price every time.
Ivan: I'm just like, I figure 200 and some odd bucks for a couple of cups. No, $700.
Ivan: Wait, why are we paying $700 to see Joe Blow? I mean, what are we doing?
Ivan: What are we doing? it but this time i almost
Ivan: always ticket master aside from the fees and other shit
Ivan: the ticket master adds because you know ticket master gets
Ivan: shit for a good reason i mean you
Ivan: see the price for an event and then on top
Ivan: of that fees this that i mean
Ivan: it just it's just so much
Ivan: on top of it okay all right it's crazy
Ivan: and one of the things they also sell is this insurance and the insurance is
Ivan: not cheap okay and i'm i always usually fuck this i'm not buying the stupid
Ivan: insurance right but my wife if she's doing it bought the insurance and i was like and.
Sam: This time it came in.
Ivan: Handy yes it did okay now now i
Ivan: will say this that like every insurer and you know
Ivan: we have insurance as a subject of course this guy you know what happened finally
Ivan: the claim was not easy okay and so she is going through right now the questionnaire
Ivan: that they have for for her to be able to secure a refund for the tickets okay,
Ivan: So that's part of it. And it's not easy.
Ivan: I mean, they're not, you know, she tried to call customer service today on a Saturday.
Ivan: They don't even have customer service available on Saturday.
Ivan: We're sometimes, well, I don't know why the hell I'm complaining about it.
Ivan: You know, we have way too many people that really don't need to be working on weekends.
Ivan: You know, so I guess it's okay. I mean, you know, that's fine.
Ivan: But obviously, she couldn't get through to customer service.
Sam: Well, also, a bunch of this crap should just be automated. It doesn't even need a human, right?
Ivan: Agreed. I mean, I don't really. Well.
Ivan: I mean, I guess it should be. But the thing is that the system,
Ivan: we're not very good at building user-friendly systems.
Ivan: In general, for that matter. Okay.
Sam: True, true.
Ivan: So, you know, especially when you've got a whole bunch of, I'm sure,
Ivan: executives, they're trying to make it difficult for you to really,
Ivan: okay, well, yeah, we want to sell this insurance, but come on,
Ivan: we really want to keep us,
Ivan: we really want to minimize claims.
Ivan: I mean, that's the way you make money in insurance. I mean, let's be clear.
Ivan: I mean, if you're doing insurance.
Sam: I mean, that's why that guy was killed, right?
Ivan: Well. In his case, I'm still, let's be clear. I don't know why the hell that guy killed him.
Ivan: They didn't even have a policy with his insurance company.
Ivan: I'm still trying to figure out what the hell, you know, I mean,
Ivan: what created in his head a vendetta against the insurance industry.
Sam: Sorry, sorry. I didn't want to move on to the real topics sooner.
Ivan: And we may not even talk about that. Between the surgery, between me having
Ivan: to be now on another round of antibiotics due to the CT scan results that I
Ivan: got from the previous week,
Ivan: between the condo board, for which I'm not going to go into details,
Ivan: but the bottom line is that it got to the point where the prize is not worth it.
Ivan: There is no point in me just...
Ivan: You know, there are certain battles in life that are winnable,
Ivan: but they're not worth the fight.
Ivan: And this got to a point where at this point in my life where that was one of them.
Ivan: And I just thought that. So I quit. I told him, fuck you, whatever.
Sam: And just to remind people just last week, I asked you, why don't you quit?
Sam: And you gave a whole bunch of reasons why you wouldn't. And then like a week later, you're out.
Ivan: Well, the reason that the, I will say that probably what tipped it to me for
Ivan: me, there were two things that tipped it.
Ivan: One was when the doctors called me and told me that I had to go back on, on medication.
Ivan: And I'm realizing how this is impacting my, my health in general.
Ivan: Okay. And I, I'm just like.
Sam: Cause the, cause the, the thing you had is potentially aggravated by stress.
Ivan: Yes. But that doesn't help. And you know, there's a new board member that is
Ivan: on the board and I'm like trying to see if I could find a way to work with this person.
Ivan: And it became very evident within with my discussions that that just wasn't really feasible.
Ivan: And we've had before where we've had challenges that have come from the outside,
Ivan: but the board has been unified.
Ivan: If I got a divided board together with an outside challenge,
Ivan: then that makes it far more difficult.
Ivan: And so when, when everything just from the last time we talked about to that point piled up,
Ivan: I had also, I also remembered that I had made a commitment that look at some
Ivan: point after a lot of things that to improve the community happened, I was going to quit,
Ivan: but I was hoping to pass the baton to someone you liked.
Ivan: no no it's not that not necessarily to more qualified people and i'll say that
Ivan: flat out because someone you approved.
Sam: Of let's put it this way.
Ivan: Listen i have i know people that
Ivan: i've worked with that are qualified that i don't necessarily like
Ivan: i will say flat out for example when i worked at hp
Ivan: i did not like mark hurd our
Ivan: ceo and i thought he was eminently qualified
Ivan: for the job at the same time so no
Ivan: they're not they're not they're not the same i i
Ivan: i think that there was a combination of both in this
Ivan: case and so i was just like but
Ivan: but you know what it wasn't worth it so so i
Ivan: did that but i also went on a business trip okay you
Ivan: know i had to go on a business trip which this was very complicated as
Ivan: well you know having to have like my mom
Ivan: be here my my my mother law be here
Ivan: having somebody else help our you know
Ivan: our our our i don't know i
Ivan: shouldn't call her it'd be she's she's more than a cleaning lady
Ivan: we have our our basically the person that comes and
Ivan: helps us at the house also drove manu to school a couple of days this week okay
Ivan: she's i mean look she's calling her a a cleaning lady is really way way way
Ivan: me undervaluing her work she is that does a hell of a lot more than that.
Ivan: She helps me organize. She helps me take care of stuff.
Ivan: Hell, you know what? With all this shit going on, she put up the Christmas tree.
Ivan: I mean, no. She's just, you know,
Ivan: She really takes, you know, and she is wonderful.
Ivan: She really likes my son too, which is great. So I'm like, you know,
Ivan: she is like, oh, at this point, if I, if she, if she moves away or something,
Ivan: I'm, I'm, I'm, I'll, I'll have a fucking heart attack.
Ivan: Okay. All right. Because, you know, she's, she's, she's a blessing. Okay.
Ivan: We'll say that, you know, but, but she, but the business trip taking care of,
Ivan: I don't meet, you know, me flying up. I mean, come back. I have to pick them up at school.
Ivan: I have to take the school. I got to take care of them. I got to serve breakfast
Ivan: to my wife in bed. I got to serve lunch. I got to serve dinner.
Ivan: I had, I got, I got to try to work out fucking.
Ivan: I did go work out today. I haven't gone to work out in two weeks.
Ivan: And I said, look, I don't think it's going to be helpful to my health to not work out.
Ivan: So I did go work out. I made a point of doing that because I think that if I'm
Ivan: not healthy, then that's not helping anybody.
Ivan: So I'm taking my medication.
Ivan: I'm trying to work out. I want it worked out, but I'm exhausted, Sam.
Ivan: This is fucking, you know, I'm on call right now, 24 seven.
Sam: Yup. Yup.
Ivan: So, but I will say this.
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: I stopped popping Tylenols every day after I resigned from the board.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: So that was definitely the right call. Cause there's give,
Ivan: it was giving me a fucking tension headache and I wasn't realizing how much
Ivan: it was really like stress you know that how much stress it was generating good so good so i did that.
Sam: Okay my turn for my but first and.
Ivan: This is the house on fire i forgot i forgot for god i meant to do.
Sam: That no i.
Ivan: I mean always a way of organizing and cleaning the house is basically just uh
Ivan: you know burn it down burn it
Ivan: down i mean look nothing to take care of afterwards that's for sure there.
Sam: You go nothing to worry about at all after you do that.
Ivan: Nah it's fine okay.
Sam: No the thing i had was actually not on my agenda before we started this podcast.
Ivan: Okay but.
Sam: Now i feel like i have something to say about it.
Ivan: Which is?
Sam: And that is Apple's center stage feature.
Ivan: Ow!
Sam: Because, you know, if you're listening to this as a podcast later,
Sam: you don't realize because it's audio only.
Sam: But if you're watching on YouTube, either live or later, you'll see the video of us.
Sam: And Yvonne has this center stage feature turned on. And all I can say is it's
Sam: just been moving constantly.
Sam: The whole time we've been doing this so far, it's just constantly zooming.
Sam: in, zooming out, moving to the left, moving to the right.
Sam: Now, Yvonne's not moving around a lot.
Sam: He's just sitting there, but it's just going wild.
Sam: And I'm just like, okay, the center stage sucks.
Sam: I'm getting dizzy here looking at Yvonne as the feature tries to keep him centered.
Sam: And again, if he was, the feature is intended to, you could move around a bit
Sam: and it keeps you centered, which is fine but it's like zooming in and out and and.
Ivan: Even tiny movies do on tv you know you realize right that they constantly do
Ivan: that in order to try to like keep your attention like on what's going on i mean i feel.
Sam: I feel like i'm on a boat in rough seas.
Ivan: Oh my goodness then i'll definitely keep then i'll definitely keep the sun from now on.
Sam: For sure man no it's like you know i understand the need for the feature but
Sam: it i i i have questions about the current implementation if it's moving this
Sam: much when yvonne isn't moving this much like if he if he was like walking.
Ivan: Around or guess that the microphone has something to do with it and and yeah
Ivan: now you know yeah i i here we go yeah i i do think that for some reason the
Ivan: the i'm trying to because the.
Sam: Microphone was in the image.
Ivan: Yeah yeah and i think that that is like kind of like messing with with it now
Ivan: i moved you see there you go.
Sam: Yeah like if you move and it adjusts no problem but it was like you're just
Sam: sitting still and it's just like.
Ivan: There i know that there is a there there is a here i thought there was somewhere
Ivan: where i could adjust the zoom which obviously that would reduce how much movement it does.
Sam: You don't have to spend time messing with it right now.
Ivan: There we go. There we go.
Sam: I just wanted to complain about a silly tech feature.
Ivan: Yeah, actually, you know what? That's exactly what it was.
Sam: What was it?
Ivan: It was the Zoom. I had it set to a setting that was making it.
Ivan: If you look now, I'm moving.
Sam: Yeah, much better.
Ivan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had the Zoom setting set.
Ivan: I had the Zoom setting in a way that it was making it move around a lot.
Sam: Because we've recorded this show with video for like a long time.
Sam: And this has not been a problem for a long time.
Sam: I think the very first time you got a computer with center stage,
Sam: it was doing something funky. But not since then.
Sam: So you were messing with the settings.
Ivan: I was messing with the settings. And I had it. Now that I did adjust the Zoom
Ivan: setting, now it's not doing that anymore. So there you go.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: So that's why.
Sam: Do I have?
Ivan: Listen, you know, talking about Apple, you know, since you brought up Apple stuff.
Sam: Okay, go ahead.
Ivan: Okay, all right. You know, a whole bunch of people, like a whole bunch of AI
Ivan: features Apple's been rolling out like this week specifically.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: A whole bunch of different like takes on what things are doing or not.
Ivan: There's one that was funny. There was somebody that, and I saw this dialogue as well.
Ivan: There is this new Apple feature about images. I haven't I haven't played with
Ivan: it yet, but I but I heard, you know, how downloading.
Ivan: However, I will say that somebody was bitching about the dialogue because the
Ivan: dialogue said, hey, features are downloading over your please stay connected
Ivan: to the Wi-Fi to to do that.
Ivan: And they're like, well, I'm over Ethernet, bitch. What the fuck are you telling me about Wi-Fi?
Ivan: And I realize that that that dialogue is kind of like a generic dialogue that
Ivan: they have that I think actually the same one is on the phone when it's dialing. i.
Sam: I was gonna say you're like wait on the phone no.
Ivan: You're talking somebody on their mac on their mac yeah so so and they were like
Ivan: complaining about it and it's like yeah it's you know that so they have this
Ivan: generic dialogue you know that just refers to wi-fi because reality is that right now most people,
Ivan: don't connect their computers.
Sam: No hard.
Ivan: Connected to to an ethernet port.
Sam: It's just that's.
Ivan: An oddity now.
Sam: Not not if it's like if you have a specific reason
Sam: where it matters to you like i know like some
Sam: hardcore gamers always want to be directly on ethernet like
Sam: blah blah blah there's some other use cases where
Sam: it really matters but for the most part for
Sam: normal usage like it doesn't
Sam: matter it doesn't matter and why would you bother i mean even if even for a
Sam: desktop computer but honestly desktop computers are much rarer now than they
Sam: used to be most people like if you're thinking about having a new computer you
Sam: got a laptop look i have mine you connected you have a you have a desktop you i do have a that.
Ivan: I do have a studio but but the reason more than anything that i have a connected
Ivan: is because it's super convenient i mean the hub is like right there it's not.
Sam: Exactly Like.
Ivan: I mean, you know, it's not like
Ivan: I'm having to like run, do an ethernet run somewhere, whatever, whatnot.
Ivan: No, it's, I mean, the thing's right there. And I'm like, okay,
Ivan: well, why the hell not when I plug it in, when it's going to be obviously when
Ivan: it's right there, but it's right there.
Sam: But like, honestly, most people like, you know, this last time I got a computer,
Sam: I got a laptop and I'm using it as a desktop, right?
Sam: 90, 90% plus of the time I'm using it as a desktop. I have it plugged in to
Sam: a full-size keyboard, a mouse, three monitors, some external hard drives, blah, blah, blah, but,
Sam: I can unplug it and go sit on the couch whenever I feel like it.
Ivan: Right.
Sam: You know, and it gives you that flexibility and blah, blah, blah.
Sam: Could I have gotten a desktop only set up for less?
Sam: Yes. I mean, I could have also spent just as much and gotten a more powerful desktop.
Ivan: Sure.
Sam: But like it's with the trade-offs, at this point, it just makes sense most of the time.
Sam: Now, honestly, like, would I have thought differently if like the most recently
Sam: released laptop was older and the most recently released desktop was newer?
Sam: Maybe like it just happened at the time I was buying it. It was the reverse of that.
Sam: But, you know, we're we're we're buying my wife a replacement computer probably any time now.
Sam: And she's also going to do a laptop and do the same thing with a setup so that
Sam: she can plug it into her desk because it just makes sense. It like gives you
Sam: that additional flexibility.
Sam: Like if you have both, if you have a desktop and a laptop, then, oh, okay.
Sam: Then maybe, yeah, it makes sense to also have the desk.
Sam: Like it depends on your use cases and what you're going to be using it for.
Sam: But of course, having both costs more money than having one.
Sam: And it's really like, if you're going to go for the desktop,
Sam: the pure desktop, it's like, okay, do you really have the use case that is 100%
Sam: Like you are going to put it in one place and that's where you're always going to use it.
Sam: And you know that and you never need the flexibility, you know?
Sam: So I don't know. And so and of course, once you're like in a laptop configuration,
Sam: I mean, I suppose you could like have your docking situation set up to switch
Sam: to Ethernet when you're docked.
Sam: But like for the most part, I mean, the default is wireless.
Sam: The default is wireless for everything, even if you've got the desktop.
Sam: Like you said, you're convenient.
Sam: you're it's right there i mean it's right there like like less than.
Ivan: A foot and a half away but if i had to but right if i had to if it was in another
Ivan: room where there wasn't an ethernet run right now i wouldn't do it.
Sam: Yeah you just use the wireless you wouldn't bother running no no.
Ivan: No no i don't think so no no.
Sam: Yeah and and i think that's true
Sam: for for most folks like you know i don't know like my my i finally like my my
Sam: daughter for a while did end up using a wired connection into her desktop computer
Sam: because she was using it for games and she was constantly complaining about like you know well.
Ivan: Dropouts and stuff yeah.
Sam: Well not because yeah lag lag
Sam: dropouts just like and things
Sam: that like for my usage like i would never
Sam: even notice like if i'm watching like streaming video it's
Sam: all buffered and i would never even notice like if it
Sam: hiccuped for a half a second or something but if
Sam: she's playing a you know live internet
Sam: game with people all over the world and she
Sam: has that kind of glitch then she gets annoyed so right of course of course unlike
Sam: you who would worry about like properly running a cable i i just have a cable
Sam: running across the floor through
Sam: the hallway down the hall into her room yeah i i you know i i don't no no.
Ivan: No no no no i i i you.
Sam: Know the.
Ivan: Ethernet cable that's here i had to
Ivan: do it the the actual box
Ivan: that has the fiber coming into the house
Ivan: is in a hallway okay and so
Ivan: the thing is that for me to even like set
Ivan: up my wi-fi router and other stuff or whatever there just
Ivan: wasn't really a place for there in the
Ivan: hallway it was just it was just a i could have but it
Ivan: was just it was inconvenient and so
Ivan: i had somebody go and run an ethernet cable
Ivan: from that location where no matter what what service came in this is the place
Ivan: where everything came into the house from you know from outside okay cables
Ivan: wise whether it was cable tv whatever so i just had him look run i need a.
Sam: Cable from there is all about
Sam: cable management and making the cables invisible i'm all
Sam: about the massive tangle of cables where everything is accessible at all times
Sam: and i can change it at will but when i do want to change it i have to untangle
Sam: everything because it's all like you know a huge mass of random wires all like
Sam: scattered all over my desk you know so yeah anyway.
Ivan: I will say the cable management is okay right now. It could be better.
Ivan: I mean, I do have like, because I did set on my 2-EA table.
Sam: I will say when I got the new microphone a couple weeks ago,
Sam: I did make sure the cable for that one was attached to the little arm that I have the microphone on.
Ivan: There you go.
Sam: And then routed behind the computer. Now, it's not all taped or whatever,
Sam: but it's not just hanging straight down from my microphone.
Ivan: Well, the one thing I said that I, a big thing I did is that there are like
Ivan: on this desk, on this desk, there are places where you can like,
Ivan: you know, so to put the cables through, go hidden.
Ivan: But, but also I had three power strips put in on the, on the table itself.
Ivan: So that way I don't have to be like hunting for a plug or something or whatever.
Ivan: there are on the desk there are there are there are plugs that are easily accessible.
Sam: For anybody.
Ivan: To get which is very convenient at this point but anyway.
Sam: All right shall we shall we take a break and move on yeah.
Ivan: We need to.
Sam: Okay we will take a break and when we come back we will have a little bit more
Sam: serious more newsy topics starting with yvonne picking but first here is popular.
Sam: Yeah, Yvonne's camera swinging around again.
Sam: Okay, here, this break. He's trying to make me dizzy. He's intentionally trying to make me dizzy.
Sam: Okay, this break is popular wiki of the day. Here you go.
Break: Do do do. Hello, this is Noral Sally.
Break: I'm here to let you know about Sam the Curmudgeon's other podcast,
Break: the Wiki of the Day podcasts.
Break: Wiki of the Day comes in three varieties, popular, random, and featured.
Break: Each highlights a new Wikipedia article each day, they just pick the articles differently.
Break: This week on popular Wiki of the Day, you would have heard this summary for Kshamuraju.
Break: Kshamuraju, born May 29, 2006, also known as Kshdi, is an Indian chess grandmaster
Break: and the reigning world chess champion.
Break: He is the youngest undisputed world chess champion in the history of the game.
Break: A chess prodigy, Ksh is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating
Break: of 2,750, doing so at the age of
Break: 17, and was the third youngest to have surpassed 2,700 at the age of 16.
Break: He earned the title of Grandmaster at the age of 12 and remains the third youngest
Break: Grandmaster in the history of chess.
Break: He won a team gold and an individual gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in
Break: 2024, as well as a team bronze and an individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022.
Break: At the age of 18, he became the youngest candidates tournament winner and,
Break: subsequently, the World Chess Champion by defeating Dingler in 7.5-6.5 at the
Break: World Chess Championship 2024.
Break: At the junior level, he is a multiple gold medalist at the World Youth Championship
Break: and the Asian Youth Chess Championship.
Break: Gush is also a silver medalist at the Asian Games.
Break: That's all there is to it. See? Fun, entertaining, educational. In short.
Break: Okay, now look for and subscribe to the Wiki of the Day family of podcasts on
Break: your podcast playing software of choice, or just go to wikioftheday.com to check out our archives.
Break: Now back to curmudgeon's corner. Do do do.
Sam: For those of you on the live stream, Yvonne had to step away for a bit,
Sam: probably to do something with his wife.
Ivan: And I heard a scream, but apparently everything's okay. All right.
Sam: Everything's okay. Good. So Yvonne, well, we are back. Where do you want to
Sam: go? Where do you want to start?
Ivan: Okay, I'm sorry, but you said, oh, I'm not going to talk about insurance.
Ivan: I'm looking at our topic list. It's quite thin.
Sam: No, I said maybe we wouldn't. I said, I didn't know whether we were going to
Sam: talk about the CEO killer again this week or not. We did mention him a little
Sam: bit last week, but they caught the guy this week.
Ivan: So, well, I will.
Sam: Is that your topic? Is that what you want to talk about next? Go ahead.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: Go, go.
Ivan: I think that.
Sam: So what's the update?
Ivan: I mean, there's not much of it. Well, the main update. Okay. They caught the guy.
Ivan: And he doesn't even have United. He didn't even have United healthcare insurance.
Sam: So he did have a chronic back issue.
Ivan: He did have a chronic back issue. but like maybe he was rejected by some other company.
Ivan: He did not come from a, he, no, he was a family of means. It's not, there is.
Sam: You know, I was going to say that it's not like, even if the insurance company
Sam: did screw him, he comes from a background where they could probably have absorbed
Sam: the cost. They were a fairly wealthy family.
Ivan: If I remember, they were a fairly wealthy family. So that, that,
Ivan: that wasn't a consideration.
Ivan: now and prominent.
Sam: Too like there were like elected political.
Ivan: Officials in maryland and such yes that are.
Sam: Related to him.
Ivan: I mean that doesn't mean that a person can't be radicalized about a subject
Ivan: yes which seems to be the case but i i will say that the,
Ivan: the thing that most disturbed has disturbed me and i've seen already some discussions
Ivan: devolve into really contentious discussions related to the assassination of this guy,
Ivan: is how many people are like...
Sam: Rah, rah, good.
Ivan: Yeah, yes.
Sam: And I mean, I've heard a middle position as well, which is like,
Sam: there's the rah, rah, good. Glad it happened, folks.
Sam: There's the, oh my God, what are you talking about? Murder is bad.
Sam: This is only harmful, blah, blah, blah.
Sam: The middle position is sort of like, Well, of course, murder is bad and it's
Sam: probably counterintuitive, but maybe don't live your life in such a way that
Sam: when you're murdered, like half the country is like.
Ivan: Oh, well, you know, this is my problem. The problem is that this is a.
Sam: And we did talk a little bit about this last week, but let's keep going.
Ivan: But the thing is that I find the judgment very...
Ivan: That it doesn't really look at how the world is in terms of how many leaders,
Ivan: people in industries and things make decisions of all sorts that result in eventually
Ivan: people one way or another dying or injured.
Ivan: And that there is no, probably no one, no leader on, no president,
Ivan: no, no leader of any large organization that doesn't do decisions that are harmful.
Ivan: And my whole thing is that when, where is your line to which ones are okay to just murder or not?
Ivan: Because you're jumping up and down and saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, good.
Ivan: He's dead. And I'm like, okay, so where are you drawing the line?
Ivan: What's your line? I mean, because here's the thing. I'm one that's opposed to
Ivan: the death penalty. Okay.
Ivan: I'm one that, so if you're opposed to the death penalty.
Sam: We have talked before about how upset you were about the execution of Saddam
Sam: Hussein. Oh, you remember.
Sam: And we have talked about on this show how neither one of us were entirely comfortable
Sam: with how the bin Laden thing went down either. How it would have been better if we captured him.
Ivan: Yes.
Sam: You know, and so, yes.
Ivan: So if I don't, if I'm not comfortable with any of those, why the fuck would
Ivan: I be comfortable with this? And why are so many people comfortable with it?
Ivan: I just don't, and no, and no, beyond gleeful.
Ivan: I understand the, the,
Ivan: I understand more than most of these people how difficult it is to deal with
Ivan: insurance companies because for full disclosure, and I guess I haven't discussed
Ivan: this before, but the subject is whatever.
Sam: You mentioned it a little bit before.
Ivan: I mentioned it a little bit, but let me be clear. The reason my father went
Ivan: to jail specifically was because of issues with health insurance companies.
Ivan: And his grievance with the health insurers was that, and I will say that the
Ivan: grievance itself was valid. His solution was the problem.
Ivan: His grievance was that insurers had decided that, well, we're getting squeezed
Ivan: by cost. So here's our solution.
Ivan: You're a pharmacist and you're selling drug X.
Ivan: Drug X costs $5. It used to be, we would pay you to dispense the drug $5 plus 30%.
Ivan: Okay. Cover your cost, overhead, profit, whatever, you know, so you get that.
Ivan: So then one day they said, well, we'll pay you five plus 15%.
Ivan: Okay. And these numbers are close to reality. I'm not, I'm not making these
Ivan: numbers up. We'll pay you five plus 15.
Ivan: Ah, that's too much. we'll pay you 5% plus 0% plus a $4 dispensing fee,
Ivan: no matter what the price of the drug is.
Ivan: Okay? So if the drug is $1,000, you make $4. Okay?
Ivan: Ah, nah, nah. That's too generous. We're going to pay you...
Ivan: Oh, the average wholesale price.
Ivan: There is a publication that shows these. Average wholesale prices for drugs.
Ivan: We'll pay you the average wholesale price minus 10%, minus 10%, right? Okay.
Ivan: So you have to be, you know, by the way, very difficult to get that.
Ivan: Oh no, we'll pay you now average wholesale price minus 15%.
Ivan: So the insurance companies decided, well, the problem, the way to solve our
Ivan: problems is just to just say, oh, you, you want to, you want to do business with us.
Ivan: you have to treat us as a lost leader.
Ivan: So the only companies that could do that are major chains. And they could also
Ivan: negotiate with the drug companies to sell them the drugs at discounts that would offset these things.
Ivan: And so it's a very difficult environment. It's a very difficult environment. They go and they do that.
Ivan: And my father, because he was very aggrieved about this, went about a way to
Ivan: try to solve this in a way that wound up landing him in jail. And for good reason.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: You know what? I... And by the way, one of the insurers, yeah,
Ivan: it was bought by UnitedHealthcare. And you know what?
Ivan: I still think that it's preposterous and ridiculous to be okay with the murder
Ivan: of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, even though they landed my dad in jail.
Ivan: So everybody here that goes, oh, you know, whatever, which for the most part,
Ivan: most people have not had relatives die in the hands of health insurers.
Ivan: Okay. And they go and they give me this shit.
Ivan: And I've spent literally the last 20, 30 years because I had to take over my dad's business.
Ivan: I got deposed by the insurers nonstop because they were going after the company.
Ivan: And I had to wind up in court, spent probably back then. Jesus Christ.
Ivan: I would be retired by now if I had spent probably a couple of hundred thousand
Ivan: dollars in legal fees back then in the 90s.
Ivan: You know, literally went bankrupt. You know, I mean, we literally went bankrupt over this.
Ivan: So what people tell me all these grievances that they've got,
Ivan: and I've had to afterwards fight for my son's coverage, fight for this, fight for that.
Ivan: I've spent literally 30 years fighting the insurance companies.
Ivan: And all these fucking people saying this.
Ivan: I'm sorry, that's not the solution. The problems in the system are it's in many cases, man,
Ivan: it's not even a fucking, you know, the insurance companies to a certain way,
Ivan: they are a vehicle to institute a lot of fucked up policies.
Ivan: OK, because one of the biggest problems that you've got with with insurance
Ivan: is that right now, mostly it's employer provided.
Ivan: OK, I or the government pays for it. So you've got to a couple of perverse things
Ivan: going on here, because, by the way, the companies decide in most cases what
Ivan: is covered by the insurance plan.
Sam: You mean the employers?
Ivan: The employer. The employer.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: Okay. And the insurance company is there just to enforce what the employer said that they will cover.
Ivan: So many of those decisions wind up at the employer's feet.
Ivan: Now, the Affordable Care Act did put a lot of locks and restrictions.
Ivan: So this wouldn't be as draconian as it was because people, well,
Ivan: nobody remembers anything.
Ivan: Matt, before the ACA, the fucking restrictions that companies could put on insurance were nuts.
Ivan: No preventive care. You wouldn't get a dime, you know, no preventive care.
Ivan: You would not get covered for any preventive, you know, I know so many plans
Ivan: that would not cover any preventive care at all, at all.
Sam: Which one of those things, by the way, this is one of those rules that makes
Sam: sense from a money-making perspective, potentially, but is completely backwards
Sam: from an optimizing healthcare perspective.
Ivan: Exactly. For the nation. That's correct. Yes. Absolutely. Okay? No preventive care.
Ivan: Lifetime limits. So what the fuck does that mean, a lifetime limit?
Ivan: Say you got a chronic disease.
Ivan: You got to. The insurance company spent a million dollars.
Ivan: They would say, oh, no, you're fucked. We're not covering another dime. See ya. Bye.
Ivan: You know, you're fucked. Die. See you later.
Ivan: which is one of the reasons why so many people used to go a lot more often bankrupt
Ivan: from medical care in the past.
Sam: And by the way, it still happens more in this country than anywhere else in the world.
Ivan: But it happens a lot less as the affordable care.
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: Okay. Pre-existing conditions. Oh, you have this, you're moving over to us.
Ivan: Ah, you're fucked. You're not getting covered.
Ivan: There are so many perverse things, But there and there's still a lot of perverse
Ivan: things, unfortunately, that are still going on.
Ivan: You know, there was there was an article recently about they were talking about
Ivan: certain practices the United Health Care does for Medicaid specifically.
Ivan: OK, related to how they get contracted to manage Medicaid in certain states.
Ivan: And one of the things that they do.
Ivan: So so the way that a statement, this is one way of doing it instead of paying for actual costs.
Ivan: okay which a lot of employers for example
Ivan: i know that i believe that my company and a few companies that i've worked
Ivan: for the the insurance administers the
Ivan: plan but they only pay actual expenses okay so so they pay a management fee
Ivan: to the insurer okay and then they they will pay what actually is spent okay
Ivan: so and which is a reason why of course they have that there are certain incentives
Ivan: to save money, which is this is where this whole thing gets perverse.
Ivan: OK, and so but with Medicaid, it also happens in a way where,
Ivan: OK, we're going to give you a your Medicaid for the state of Georgia.
Ivan: You're going to cover this area here.
Ivan: There's 300,000 Medicaid recipients.
Ivan: We're going to pay you $50 a month to manage their care and you get to manage the care.
Ivan: And so, because there is this number of subscribers at a price,
Ivan: they obviously have an incentive to...
Ivan: You know, cut costs as much as possible. So they get to keep most more,
Ivan: more of those $50 that are getting given every month.
Ivan: And, and, and the thing is, in many of these, they don't have enough health
Ivan: outcome targets that prevent them from saying, well, fuck this shit.
Ivan: Well, we'll, oh, they'll say what they cover, right? Oh, we'll cover this, this, this, and this.
Ivan: But there aren't enough locks in how difficult they make it to access the coverage many times.
Ivan: So you see, oh man, And you see so many doctors right now refusing to take Medicaid
Ivan: because of this, because they're like, man, they don't pay enough.
Ivan: We can't take these patients.
Ivan: We're just, you know, we're not going to take them. They're not paying us enough.
Ivan: I can't make, you know, we can't do this.
Ivan: So the thing is that if they measured however more health outcomes,
Ivan: hey, this population right now has this
Ivan: incidence of diabetes this incidence of
Ivan: this we have this many hospitalizations we
Ivan: have this you know there are certain metrics because
Ivan: hospitalizations can also get tricky metric because hey what
Ivan: do you do oh don't let him go into a fucking hospital let's just throw him
Ivan: out right you have to you know
Ivan: anyway so yeah so there are
Ivan: all these perverse things in the entire system that
Ivan: make it that that you wind
Ivan: up with the system and look the aca tried to do a lot of things
Ivan: to to do this well hell hillary care
Ivan: was going to do a hell of a lot more to do
Ivan: that but the reality is that that i mean when obama went to do this you know
Ivan: he did a lot and as usual and as i've learned my experience is that you can
Ivan: do a whole lot to make people's lives better and Like a lot of people just won't
Ivan: fucking appreciate it or really understand that you're the person that did it.
Ivan: You know, this is, this is where we are right now. And the system is perverse. Okay.
Ivan: And, and I think that a lot of times laying blame on the,
Ivan: many times I feel that the insurance companies are the ones that are kind of
Ivan: like, uh, in the middle of all of this because men, you know, Hey,
Ivan: what better way of shifting the blame from me doing anything as a government I don't know.
Ivan: Than to hire them to run it. And so they take all the slings and shots.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: You know. It's just a fucked up system.
Sam: Agreed. Agreed. No.
Ivan: And if we start deciding. Well where do we start the murder list.
Ivan: Of all the blame. Then you know what. Maybe you can start with a fucking GOP.
Ivan: Assholes who fucking block any meaningful health reform. Over the last 40 years.
Ivan: How about we start with those. if you want to start a murder list,
Ivan: okay? And I'm not advocating one.
Sam: I was going to say, let's not go there.
Ivan: I'm not advocating one.
Sam: But you could still say, and I've heard people argue about UnitedHealth versus
Sam: the other insurance companies.
Sam: UnitedHealth has a reputation for being especially ruthless even in comparison to their competition.
Ivan: Oh, fucking bullshit. I have UnitedHealthcare right now. Let me tell you something.
Ivan: I've had United. I've had Aetna. I've had Cigna. I've had, listen,
Ivan: I've had everybody bullshit.
Ivan: Listen, my experience has been with UnitedHealthcare that they have compared
Ivan: to like about the last five insurers.
Ivan: They have made it easier for me to submit claims. They have,
Ivan: they actually recently, okay, went and there was like, there was a thing with
Ivan: my son's speech therapy where all of a sudden they were paying me different.
Ivan: they have they have assigned care
Ivan: advisors and they have somebody that went
Ivan: and like fought my case for about four or five months
Ivan: and get they gave me my money back and
Ivan: i didn't even do anything other than call them up and say hey this
Ivan: is wrong this isn't the way and they said no well you know what we're gonna
Ivan: we're gonna file a case we're gonna do this we're gonna do that and they gave
Ivan: my fucking money back i had a whole bunch of other smaller insurers basically
Ivan: like told me to go fuck myself over stuff and that they didn't make it easy
Ivan: for you to submit a claim or they paid or they processed them late or they never processed. I mean.
Ivan: I will say that in terms of admin, that UnitedHealthcare is far superior than
Ivan: most of their bigger competitors, okay?
Ivan: The doctors, the people that have told me more that UnitedHealthcare is more
Ivan: ruthless, it's more on their end is with doctors, okay?
Ivan: But in terms of the consumer, I will say that having had them the last.
Ivan: You know, I've had them, you know, I've had so many freaking providers that
Ivan: honestly they've been the one that's been the easiest to work with and so i'm like you know,
Ivan: i i shit man
Ivan: i'm like man you guys are pissed off at united healthcare but you're man i mean
Ivan: i'm sorry but blue cross is worse etna's worse why i go after those guys i i
Ivan: don't i i just It was just very arbitrary.
Ivan: Okay, first of all, like we've said this before, how the death sentence is very arbitrary in general.
Ivan: It's why I'm not for a fucking death sentence.
Ivan: It's always been arbitrary.
Ivan: It's never executed fairly.
Sam: And I'll add, the only real, like...
Sam: If, if what you're after is revenge. Okay. Like I see that, but if you're actually.
Ivan: But this guy wasn't even after revenge.
Sam: That was not, but I'm saying more generally,
Sam: like in terms of this one, but also death penalty writ large,
Sam: also just hell violent solutions to problems writ large, including most wars, you know,
Sam: almost always the violence actually ends up making things worse.
Sam: not actually improving the situation and solving the problem.
Sam: You know, you may eventually get to something,
Sam: but I'm not convinced there's very many situations at all where the violence
Sam: is actually the optimal solution as opposed to figuring out something more civilly.
Sam: But, you know, in terms of the healthcare situation specifically,
Sam: and we touched on this last week,
Sam: it's not like killing this guy
Sam: is going to suddenly have united health change a whole bunch of their policies
Sam: i mean you mentioned maybe some people will make some decisions differently
Sam: on the margins but it's not like they're suddenly going to be like you know
Sam: a whole bunch of things that we were rejecting last week we're going to accept
Sam: this week because you killed the ceo that.
Ivan: Now yeah Yeah, exactly. But look, in the history of revenge,
Ivan: how has revenge really worked out over history?
Ivan: Just revenge doesn't work out very well.
Sam: The old phrase is an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.
Ivan: Yeah. It's just not a solution. It's just not a solution.
Ivan: And, you know, yeah, I mean, I think there are,
Ivan: Well, I'm usually pretty consistent on topics. I've been very consistent on this topic.
Ivan: I don't think that I, you know, I mean, sure, I think I may be very a little
Ivan: bit on some, but I don't on this, like you mentioned, I wasn't comfortable when
Ivan: they when they hung Saddam like that.
Ivan: I wasn't comfortable with killing bin Laden.
Ivan: I'm not comfortable with this. And I wasn't comfortable with them trying to
Ivan: assassinate Trump either.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: So no so but
Ivan: but look man if anything
Ivan: that i learned over my odyssey over here my my personal
Ivan: stuff and whatever with people's vitriol lately it's just that man we are in
Ivan: a really really really bad era in terms of people expressing their hate and vitriol openly well.
Sam: And and part Part of this, too, is I think these are all related.
Sam: People are very frustrated because they don't think they can get the results
Sam: they want in the normal ways, in the approved ways.
Sam: They've seen like years and years of, you know, we wanted X, Y, Z.
Sam: We voted for whoever and it didn't happen.
Sam: Whatever the thing was, you know, and depending on who you're talking to, the things they want.
Ivan: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. hold on hold.
Sam: Yes hold on yes not.
Ivan: That maybe it didn't happen it's just that so many times changes to things are so small and.
Sam: They happen.
Ivan: Gradually then people don't notice them okay.
Sam: Yes it's like and and even when they do they don't know who to attribute the
Sam: change to good or bad good or bad because right things things happen things
Sam: happen with delays like you you pass a law and the effect of it happens five years later.
Ivan: Right.
Sam: You know, all of this kind of stuff. So both in terms of getting credit for
Sam: good things and getting blamed for bad things, people just don't associate cause with effect.
Sam: Don't blame or give credit to the right people.
Ivan: Nope.
Sam: And like you said, a lot of things happen gradually and they discount them entirely
Sam: because they didn't even notice they happened.
Sam: Right. It's almost like unless you have suddenly this big ceremony where on
Sam: such and such date everything changes completely, people are oblivious.
Sam: Unless it's bad. Unless it's bad. They notice gradual bad news.
Ivan: It's like the whole thing with the Affordable Care Act, right?
Ivan: How many people want to repeal Obamacare but love the Affordable Care Act?
Ivan: You're like, we're in a really shitty era in terms of,
Ivan: but information as well in general.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: And that's, that's the bigger problem. I think it used, it used to be that 80,
Ivan: 90% of the people operated based on a certain number of facts that came from
Ivan: certain limited sources.
Ivan: imperfect as they may have been yep but but
Ivan: even like when they fucked up most of them were trying most of the major ones
Ivan: were trying to get the facts out but we know that they're i mean they're they're
Ivan: being run by humans okay so they will have they will have their bents and their
Ivan: slants and so forth to an era where you know the alex jones type era.
Sam: There was a day where it was actually like i i i'm not going to make up a percentage
Sam: but a very large group of the general public and i'm talking not just college
Sam: educated whatever but read a newspaper every day.
Ivan: Yeah like you know of all levels of education of.
Sam: All levels of education.
Ivan: Of all.
Sam: Like you know blue collar white collar.
Ivan: Yeah whatever.
Sam: Like you know you you got home from the mines and you read the newspaper right.
Ivan: You read the paper even if it's just a little bit of reading the paper it's
Ivan: just even if it's cruising the headlines right that and watch the same and watch
Ivan: the the literally like 90 got their news from the same three different 30 minute
Ivan: broadcast yeah three same three yeah and.
Sam: Look like on the one hand the proliferation of information is like incredible
Sam: we've got like so many resources at our fingertips.
Sam: But on the other hand, what that leads to is we've got these information bubbles.
Sam: We've got a lot of confusion because people don't know who to trust,
Sam: who not to trust, whatever, end up trusting the wrong people, blah, blah, blah.
Sam: And so, yeah, you definitely have the information environment is very broken right now.
Sam: It's very divergent, depending on what you're paying attention to, what you're not.
Sam: I think also there's an education gap in terms of like people going through
Sam: school and coming out and still having no freaking idea of basic civics and how things work.
Ivan: Well, to be fair, that happened more in the past. That happened in the past. But I think – I mean.
Sam: It's always been complicated, right? I don't expect everybody to know the ins
Sam: and outs of congressional committees and crap.
Ivan: But the point specifically about where people get the news, okay,
Ivan: in general and the sources themselves.
Ivan: And it goes back to something I was like last night.
Ivan: I was like – my son and my wife were in bed. I had no room. I was in the living
Ivan: room. I couldn't find what to watch. The bucket list was on.
Ivan: And it reminded me one thing that Jack Nichols said that was actually accurate.
Sam: Which is like, by the way, you're talking about the movie, the bucket list, right?
Ivan: Yes. Yes.
Sam: And which I have not seen. So I'm going to like make a little note of it.
Sam: But, but I have heard as well. This is one of those like Mandela effect kind of things.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: People have pointed out that the phrase bucket list.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: Was coined by this movie in 2018. It did not exist before that.
Sam: Or by the book it was based on. Was it based on a book?
Ivan: Yeah, it might have been.
Sam: No, no, it was...
Ivan: It was in the movie?
Sam: It looked...
Sam: Oh, no, wait, this is the wrong movie. Not 2018. I had the year wrong.
Sam: But there's another- Well, no, there's a 2018 bucket list film that's an Indian movie.
Sam: That's not the one you're talking about.
Ivan: No, this one came out of 2007, 2008.
Sam: 2007, 2007. Yes, that's the one you meant. No, but that's when the phrase bucket
Sam: list was coined, apparently.
Sam: Or at least so I've heard. I read this on the internet and you know how true
Sam: things are on the internet.
Sam: If I saw it on the internet, it must be true. There's no doubt what's going on.
Ivan: I thought I heard it before, but be that as it may.
Sam: That's what people always say. I thought I heard it before. It's been around all my life.
Ivan: But maybe.
Sam: Apparently not.
Ivan: Okay. But be that as it may. Okay. Jack Nicholson said something that I've always reminded.
Sam: It's on the Wikipedia page for Bucket List.
Sam: It was written. The movie was written by Justin Zakim.
Sam: And Zakim coined the expression Bucket List.
Sam: after he wrote his own list of things to do before I kick the bucket and shortened
Sam: it to Justin's bucket list.
Sam: The first item on his list was get a film made at a major studio.
Sam: The list gave him the idea for the screenplay and the bucket list became his first studio film.
Ivan: There you go. So, okay. So he said that.
Sam: Man, anyway, sorry for the tangent. Go ahead.
Ivan: No, no, no. The one thing is that Jack Nichols is a,
Ivan: you know, is a we're talking about religion
Ivan: and uh and one of the things that
Ivan: morgan freeman tells jack nicholson is like so you're saying that 95
Ivan: of the people out there are wrong jack nicholson looked back and
Ivan: said listen i have made my i have made my
Ivan: money in my business because 95 of the fucking people are wrong yes that's the
Ivan: reality and worse most of them think they're right um yes so that That's part
Ivan: of this issue with information being so...
Ivan: right now that it's coming from so many different sources.
Ivan: You basically get the situation where everybody thinks that whatever they're watching is right.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: And everybody else is wrong.
Sam: Right. Absolutely. And it's easy to get locked into that.
Sam: I mean, I fully admit like there are a set of things I watch and listen to and read.
Sam: Now, I try to make it very wide, as wide as possible to try to burst some of
Sam: these bubble things. But at the same time, you know, there are certain sources
Sam: that, yeah, I look at them.
Sam: I'm like, yeah, I'm not even going to look at that because it's trash, you know?
Sam: And I know there's a group of people who think the same thing about the sources I trust, you know?
Sam: But yeah, like it's the lack of a common reality is definitely a problem right now.
Sam: Okay. Anything else on that? Or should we take a break and move on.
Ivan: Yvonne? I, okay. Unfortunately, I have been called for duty.
Sam: Ah, okay.
Ivan: I don't know if I can continue recording the show.
Sam: Okay, well, we can, you know, I can take a break and maybe I'll have something
Sam: to say later. Or maybe not. We could just shut it off now.
Sam: We could be done. I'm okay with that.
Ivan: We could be done. I mean, look at, look at what, I mean, look at, let me say something.
Ivan: I think this is the thinnest, thinnest, thinnest.
Sam: You know, I was going to talk about New Jersey drones.
Ivan: And maybe what the hell is there to say about the fucking new jersey drones
Ivan: hey there's a whole bunch of drones under new jersey we don't know where they
Ivan: came from i just read today that there's so many millions of drones flying or
Ivan: unauthorized space on a regular basis right now,
Ivan: that that you know nobody knows what the hell to do about it but i'm like okay
Ivan: there's drones in new jersey and they're flying nobody knows where they can
Ivan: they're big and they're big Like.
Sam: Say, I don't believe no one knows. It's just ridiculous.
Sam: Of course, somebody has figured. I mean, if nothing else, the people flying them know.
Ivan: Well, yeah, sure. Well, at least we don't have a straight answer. We don't know.
Sam: Yes, we don't have a straight answer.
Sam: but yeah and and and and asad like the stuff there but like like we we can we
Sam: can call it i'm i'm good with that nice short show for once yeah.
Ivan: And and it's not you know look exigent circumstances unfortunately i i'm like
Ivan: right now i am a primary caregiver i have no backup i got people that want to
Ivan: need to eat i've just been.
Sam: Informed what are you talking about that's yeah i know
Sam: nobody needs to eat yeah and so i probably
Sam: have one over here who wants to eat too i don't know so um
Sam: okay so let's let's let's let's wrap
Sam: this sucker up curmudgeon-corner.com the one oh the
Sam: one thing i need to say that i promised last week and the week before that i
Sam: would say the the sheet is now up for oh i've got a i've got a 3d printed hedgehog
Sam: in my hand too that my son just gave me.
Ivan: That's always, always handy.
Sam: Always necessary. Anyway, the Curmudgeons Corner Prediction Show for 2025 is
Sam: going to come up the last week of this month, which means we will probably be,
Sam: let's see, I'll look at the calendar.
Sam: Two weeks from now, we will probably be recording this prediction show.
Sam: So time is limited. I have set up a Google Docs document that is currently completely blank.
Sam: other than headings for potential categories like politics, international technology,
Sam: etc., and some subcategories that we've used in the past.
Sam: And the, oh, I noticed a formatting problem. I'll fix it after I do this.
Sam: Anyway, it is at tinyurl.com slash ccpred2025.
Sam: Like we've done the last couple of years, We will mostly do predictions based on listener requests.
Sam: I will go in and at the last moment, fill it in with some of the stuff we usually
Sam: do if we don't have enough.
Sam: But if you are interested in asking us to predict things, go to tinyurl.com
Sam: slash ccpred 2025 and add your requests of things you would like us to predict.
Sam: They need to be things that will happen within calendar year 2025 and will be
Sam: clearly and where we'll be able to clearly determine if we were right or not in January, 2026.
Sam: So those are the guidelines. And also please sign your name to it like dash,
Sam: you know, first name, initial.
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Sam: the year will be predictions for 2025 first show of 2025 will be evaluation
Sam: of how we did for our 2024 predictions.
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Sam: to other stuff and you know i've got But we've been posting highlights on TikTok lately, too.
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Sam: Curmudgeon's Corner Slack where Yvonne and I are chatting with listeners all
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Sam: Yvonne, you got to go or do you have something you want to highlight?
Ivan: I got, I, I, I've been looking for it. I got it. Okay. All right.
Ivan: So I don't, I don't remember if we mentioned the Hawk to a girl coin the last, last time.
Sam: I don't, we talked about it on the Slack, but I don't think we talked about it.
Ivan: So, so, so, all right. But, but, okay. So the thing is that the Hawk to a girl
Ivan: went and like, apparently started for a.
Sam: Uh, uh, for anybody who doesn't know who she is, there was one of these.
Ivan: Do we have to explain this?
Sam: There was one of these on the street interview things, and somebody asked her about something.
Ivan: And somebody asked her about something. You're going to be specific.
Ivan: Listen, they asked her something about how you keep a boyfriend or something,
Ivan: and she answered with an answer about what you do.
Ivan: And Hak Tua was basically her spitting on the guy's dick while she was going
Ivan: to suck it. Okay, all right, so there you go. All right, I'll be exactly explicit.
Sam: You were more explicit than I was going to be, but okay, fine.
Ivan: Okay, so yeah.
Sam: And she got famous for this.
Ivan: She got very famous for this.
Sam: She's making the most of her 15 minutes of fame and cashing in in all kinds of different ways.
Ivan: And she was doing a whole bunch of stuff, which is for the most part to be seen fine.
Sam: Good for her. She started a podcast. She's been on all kinds of other shows.
Sam: She's making all kinds of deals.
Ivan: She's got an agent.
Sam: By the way, if you get a viral 15 minutes of fame, by all means.
Ivan: Cash in in every way possible cash in
Ivan: go cash in i'm i'm fine so the one thing
Ivan: is that we we had shared a story and there was another one that
Ivan: we shared about this like this week from a from a
Ivan: teenage kid but this is the headline hawk
Ivan: to a girl responds as people call for her to be jailed with fans losing life
Ivan: savings after buying her cryptocurrency the viral section has been accused of
Ivan: pulling the rug under investors as her crypto coin plummeted by $430 million in just 20 minutes.
Sam: And there's about 90%. Maybe we did mention this on the show. I don't know.
Ivan: I don't remember that we mentioned it. It's but, but we had so.
Sam: But, but you saying that makes me remember, I don't know. I don't know. Is it all together?
Ivan: But then we had this week, but we also had the reason I was mentioning is because
Ivan: we had this week, aside from that one, if we mentioned it, our apologies,
Ivan: because my brain is fried,
Ivan: that there was some other kid this week that in less than 10 minutes,
Ivan: a US team made a small fortune selling off a mean coin he made on a lark.
Ivan: Traderless feeling swindled, sought revenge.
Ivan: I'm just like, man, you know, if you guys are buying, look at who you're buying this shit from.
Sam: Random coin created by a teenager on a lark on a site that lets anybody create
Sam: a coin with almost no effort, then you get what you deserve.
Sam: of and of course i said we got to make curmudgeons coin and alex emzola coin so that you know hey like.
Ivan: You guys could.
Sam: All buy it and then we can rug pull and.
Ivan: You know listen he's a look alex is a teen he's got time i don't have time for
Ivan: this shit right now i don't have time i don't have time for anything i would
Ivan: see if you create a couple of meme coins and like you know pull like 30 40 million
Ivan: dollars so we could just fucking like call it a day i'll put him on the assignment Yeah,
Ivan: I'll take, I'll, I'll just take a 15%.
Sam: You keep 85.
Ivan: Okay. I'll take 15%.
Sam: I don't know. You're going to have to convince him not to keep a hundred if
Sam: you're making him do the work.
Ivan: I mean, you know, we're going to keep him out of jail. That's my part.
Sam: You'll provide the lawyer.
Ivan: I exactly. I do the post. He's got to do the pre I'm, I'm doing the protection side. Okay. All right.
Ivan: I have the right attorneys. I can make sure that he's well defended.
Ivan: to i'm doing that part okay you gotta do the other part first.
Sam: Well it's unclear to me whether either hawk to a girl or this teenager actually did anything illegal.
Ivan: I know i don't i don't know either but however i'm sure that they will be the
Ivan: recipients of a lot of lawsuits and so you know so you gotta have a strategy
Ivan: to fend that shit off okay okay,
Ivan: Okay. All right. So we're done.
Sam: There you go. Okay. Thanks everybody for joining us. We'll see you next week.
Sam: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Sam: And please, again, tinyurl.com slash ccpred2025.
Sam: Add things that you would like us to make predictions on.
Sam: And last year, everybody waited until like a couple days before we were going
Sam: to record the damn show, before they added anything to this thing.
Sam: And then all of a sudden we had like a bunch of people add their requests.
Sam: Don't wait till the end. Start adding them now.
Sam: Okay. With that, we are out of here. Have a great week. Stay safe.
Sam: We'll talk to you next time. Goodbye.
Ivan: Bye-bye.
Sam: Okay, here comes the stop button. Go take care of your family, Yvonne.
Ivan: All right, well, we got to save. Save. Come on, go save.