Ivan: Hello? No, wait.
Sam: Mary, hold on. Waiting for streaming software to go live. Here we go.
Sam: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's a picture.
Ivan: A picture. Well, as long as it's a picture. We don't need the right picture. We just need a picture.
Sam: That's right. Who cares about those details?
Sam: Okay, did that right. okay okay thanks for being flexible yvonne shall we go
Sam: yeah go okay here we go make sure this is live Blub-bloop.
Break: Blub-bloop.
Sam: Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025.
Sam: It is just after 2 UTC.
Sam: I'm Sam Minter. Yvonne Bo is here.
Sam: Our agenda is going to be like the normal agenda, I guess.
Sam: We are doing this a little bit early, so I don't know about a normal agenda.
Ivan: I mean, we'll probably do a shortened agenda. that we are bored, you know, because.
Sam: It hasn't been that long since.
Ivan: Exactly. Right.
Sam: Well, you know, there are things and happened and I got stuff. I don't know.
Sam: Okay. So I, I know I owe an explanation. We usually record these days,
Sam: like over the course of this podcast, which we started in 2007,
Sam: long time ago, but we have, we have recorded on different days.
Sam: When we first started this thing, we used to record on Sundays.
Sam: And then there was a period of time where we recorded on, well,
Sam: we shifted all over the place.
Sam: For a while, it was like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and it could be any of the above.
Sam: More recently, it's usually been Friday or Saturday with sometimes Thursday.
Sam: And I'm talking U.S. time right now, shifted all like, you know.
Sam: But anyway, but I've made sure there's been one episode per week, no matter what.
Sam: So we are doing it early this week because I will be indisposed later in the week, as they say.
Sam: And so I'll give the reason why. I'm going to have some surgery.
Sam: I'm going to have some surgery.
Ivan: Yay! Isn't that exciting? So what is it? Finally, we're doing the lobotomy?
Sam: Yes. I don't need any of that brain anymore. It's served its purpose. It's done.
Ivan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. You know, what the hell?
Sam: No, so...
Ivan: So it's not the lobotomy.
Sam: It's not the lobotomy. And I'm actually getting too...
Ivan: And it's not... You're not getting some kind of enlargement surgery that we know of.
Sam: Well, you know. I could, but no, no, um, no, no, no, I'm actually getting two
Sam: surgeries. It's very exciting.
Sam: Both of them are outpatient. So in theory, I will only be there for a few hours for each of these.
Sam: I have one going on on Thursday, one going on on Friday, but they basically
Sam: said like, you're probably still going to feel awful for a while after the surgeries.
Sam: So I didn't want to try to like have surgery in
Sam: the daytime and do the podcast in the evening or even
Sam: worry about editing the podcast afterwards i wanted to take
Sam: care of it so my my disclosure is
Sam: it it's a basal cell carcinoma on
Sam: my nose so that apparently
Sam: yeah there'd been a place on my
Sam: nose that like would occasionally like like
Sam: bleed and i was like oh whatever it's like a zit or whatever it's a pimple that
Sam: got you know whatever but it kept coming back like in the same spot like not
Sam: all the time like every few months it would pop up and eventually i'm like i
Sam: every couple of months because i have.
Ivan: I had a every couple of months it would start bleeding again.
Sam: Yeah because.
Ivan: I i have a spot that it's actually i've had to check that i i my family suffers
Ivan: from like little veins that pop.
Sam: Right i.
Ivan: Have a i had a spot where that's been the case i had one like it was around
Ivan: in my nose that my my sister-in-law being a doctor and i want to be surgeon.
Sam: I have to say during dinner pulled out the.
Ivan: Scapel and just cut it off.
Sam: At like i'll take care of that for you yeah basically Luckily.
Ivan: She was like, ah, it's just a vein. I'll take it out right here. Boom.
Sam: Did she at least sterilize it?
Ivan: No. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, the stuff was sterile. Yes.
Ivan: But then when she did, it started bleeding like a lot. Okay.
Ivan: Now she did have something to stop the bleeding, but she didn't have it handy
Ivan: because she didn't expect it to start bleeding that much at that moment.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: So then she had to apply something there to stop the bleeding.
Ivan: But yeah, I got it. I had this kind of stuff done at dinner.
Sam: Yeah. Well, very nice. I am not having it done at dinner. No. So anyway, the thing.
Ivan: If Brandy came out with a scaffolder heading towards you, you'd be like,
Ivan: oh, shit. Wait, what? No. Yeah, that would be. Yeah, that would be. Yeah.
Sam: Yeah. So anyway, like every few months this would come back.
Sam: And by eventually, I mean nearly three years, I brought this up to my general
Sam: practitioner, or my regular family doctor on a routine visit,
Sam: and she takes a look at it, and is like, yeah, let's send you to the dermatologist.
Sam: And so a few weeks later, I go to the dermatologist, and they take a,
Sam: what you call, a sample, you know, and went off and tested it,
Sam: and yep, basal cell carcinoma.
Sam: So for those of you who don't know, because I wouldn't have known this off the
Sam: top of my head before, that is a skin cancer.
Sam: It's the most common form of skin cancer, but it's known to it grows very very
Sam: very slowly and right and it's incredibly rare that it migrates and spreads
Sam: to other parts of the body but you.
Ivan: Want it you need to take care of it.
Sam: But you need to take care of it like and it you know
Sam: it very very rarely turns serious either like you people very rarely die of
Sam: this you know but yeah you want to take care of it anyway like because you don't
Sam: want to press your luck and be one of the fraction of a percent where it does
Sam: spread and become more serious or anything like that.
Sam: So anyway, what they're doing is what's called Mohs surgery,
Sam: which is extremely fun sounding.
Sam: A friend of ours, Ivana and I's, had this done as well. She sent me pictures. It was very exciting.
Sam: Apparently my stepmother also had this done at one point.
Sam: It's a fairly common thing, but basically the way I envision it,
Sam: it does not actually work this way.
Sam: But I imagine them going in with, you know, an ice cream scoop or a melon baller
Sam: and just like scooping out stuff.
Sam: But the basic idea of it is that they do a little bit at a time. They do.
Sam: They take out a little bit, then they go test it and see, did they get everything?
Sam: And if they did, then you're done.
Sam: If they didn't, they go back in and take more and repeat until you're done.
Sam: And so, so anyway, that's the procedure I've got going on on Thursday.
Sam: On Friday, I have to go back in because they expect that the hole they're going
Sam: to make in my nose is big enough that it's going to need plastic surgery to repair.
Sam: So and apparently exactly what procedure they'll
Sam: do will depend on exactly how big the hole ends up being
Sam: but what they told me they're kind of expecting is a procedure where they basically
Sam: take you know a flap of skin from my forehead and like bend it down and shove
Sam: it in and fill up the hole with it so that's my fun the the the thursday procedure
Sam: is i'm going to be awake for,
Sam: but the Friday one is going to be my very first experience with general anesthesia.
Sam: So that'll be fun, I guess. Is fun the right word, Yvonne?
Ivan: Oh, it's exciting. It's tingling.
Sam: Have you done general?
Ivan: No.
Sam: No.
Ivan: Well, okay. Well, for, well, yes, for a colonoscopy.
Sam: Now, I had a colonoscopy, but I, and I remember them making me loopy, but not completely.
Ivan: No, no, no. No, the way that they've done the colonoscopy, I've been completely out.
Ivan: I mean, I basically had to start done, and all of a sudden I wake up in a recovery
Ivan: room and I have no recollection of anything.
Sam: See, because when I had the colonoscopy, I remember being awake enough to ask
Sam: them to please turn the screen so I could see too.
Ivan: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Ivan: no, no, no, no, no, no. What the hell place you're, what the hell kind of fucking
Ivan: like place you're going to?
Ivan: No, I went to a place where I was completely, completely out.
Sam: No, I was like, I want to see, I want to see. And they were like describing
Sam: what I was looking at while they were shoving the thing in me, you know? So, yeah.
Sam: Cause you know, they had it up on a big screen and I could see and do it.
Sam: You know, now I was completely like.
Sam: high. And I imagine for part of it, I might not have been fully aware,
Sam: but I was aware for enough of it.
Sam: So it definitely wasn't fully general anesthesia.
Ivan: I was completely out.
Sam: Yeah. And my son Alex has had general a couple of times for the dentist because
Sam: he wouldn't cooperate with them otherwise when he was younger.
Sam: So, you know, so I know, I know this is a completely routine procedure,
Sam: but still I'm like, I'm going to spend two days going through procedures.
Sam: And they told me basically expect to like be uncomfortable and have bandages
Sam: all over your face for a week.
Sam: So I'm actually taking not only Thursday and Friday this week,
Sam: but all of next week off from work.
Sam: And on the one hand, I'm like, Ooh, a week off, I can do all kinds of stuff. I can get stuff done.
Sam: But on the other hand, I'm like, you know, basically they've told me do as little
Sam: as possible for that week.
Sam: You know, you don't, you, you, you want, you're not going to be feeling great.
Sam: It's going to be uncomfortable.
Sam: You don't want to do active things that are like, I don't know,
Sam: rip out stitches or whatever, you know, just, just do as little as possible.
Sam: But I figure I can sit at my desk and do stuff probably, or,
Sam: and, you know, or maybe I'll just be watching TV the
Sam: whole time i don't know but you know anyway so that's
Sam: why we're doing this early we're you
Sam: know usually the latest we were ever usually like
Sam: i said utc wise it's usually thursday or friday no no utc wise it's usually
Sam: friday or saturday very occasionally thursday this time we're recording on monday
Sam: evening uh u.s time tuesday utc so way early for us but you know whatever That's
Sam: my excuse. I have an excuse. Damn it.
Ivan: Yes, you do have an excuse. So anyway, now that we've eaten the excuse to death.
Sam: But first, and then we'll, we'll see how the other rest goes.
Sam: Maybe it'll all be a, but first, maybe I'll just do a whole bunch of movies.
Ivan: If we could do that, I guess.
Sam: Yeah. We do have a couple real things, but do you have any?
Ivan: No, we'll skip the but first today. Okay. This is on this short show.
Ivan: We'll skip the but first.
Sam: Okay. So what's your first real topic then? I guess I did my first topic.
Ivan: Well, the first real topic is quite simple. Mr. President that doesn't shut
Ivan: up today, tank the markets again.
Sam: Again. Again.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: I was kind of busy at work, but I didn't notice that that was happening.
Ivan: He is insisting on Jerome Powell
Ivan: lowering rates, and he keeps telling people he wants to fire Powell,
Ivan: which the markets are basically—there's already a brewing—I'm not going to say
Ivan: it's at a crisis of confidence level yet,
Ivan: but certainly he has shaken confidence in the— Wasn't it already shaken?
Ivan: No, he has, he has already shaken, but shaken it further.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: Okay. The confidence in, in, in, in, in, in our monetary system, the economic system.
Ivan: Um, yeah. And so it's just, you won't shut the fuck up.
Sam: And I, it's very clear that it's going so well so far.
Ivan: A number of reports would indicate otherwise, Sam, that right now,
Ivan: in terms of 100 days for a president,
Ivan: in the modern history, this is about as bad in terms of approval,
Ivan: in terms of markets, in terms of everything that it's ever gone for any president ever.
Ivan: And yet we wonder why he bankrupted casinos.
Sam: I've heard that's hard to do.
Ivan: It is. It's very hard. I mean, some casinos, and the thing is,
Ivan: bankrupt casinos, not where, you know, there were certain casino companies that
Ivan: borrowed too much money and they had trouble servicing the debt.
Ivan: But the casinos themselves were making money.
Ivan: Okay. So it was just, they just, you know, borrowed too much money of too high
Ivan: an interest rate. And so that caused them to be unable to pay the debt service.
Ivan: But the casino itself, the operation was solid. You understand what I'm saying?
Ivan: In his case, he did that where he borrowed the money bad and the casino was run like shit.
Ivan: So that's how he managed to do that achievement.
Ivan: It's very, very, very, how do I say? He's very innovative in that way.
Ivan: And so he's doing the same here.
Ivan: You know, I mean, it's just a bunch of idiot incompetence. He's basically dictating policy.
Ivan: It seems like Scott Bessent, it's one of the few that are non-lunatics around him.
Sam: You know what that means, though, Yvonne?
Ivan: Yeah, what?
Sam: He's going to be fired any day now. Yes, any day now.
Ivan: I don't know.
Sam: Because he keeps telling him to, like, calm down, not do crazy things.
Ivan: Well, he's been doing stuff not in that way, as far as I've heard.
Ivan: The one thing that he did the last time, I guess, I think he did call on some
Ivan: people to appear on Fox Business News.
Ivan: which by the way we found that's how you talk
Ivan: to him right and talk about how bad shit is and
Ivan: then what he did is that apparently he showed him
Ivan: some kind of simple charts on the problems with the bond market and I guess
Ivan: he could understand those he said hey you're trying to drive down interest rates
Ivan: look at this they're selling them off it's going the wrong way,
Ivan: every time you yammer about this.
Ivan: So that kind of helped for a little bit, but it hasn't held.
Ivan: He keeps yammering away.
Ivan: That way, another interesting thing, you know, that they had to negotiate 90
Ivan: trade deals in like 90 days.
Sam: Yes, yes, yes.
Ivan: How many do you think he's done?
Sam: None.
Ivan: You would be correct.
Sam: Well, they're all going to come on day 89.
Ivan: Ah, that's what it is.
Sam: They're going simultaneously.
Ivan: Ah that's what i.
Sam: Well you know here here's
Sam: the thing i i presume a few of these will
Sam: actually get negotiated i mean it doesn't actually have to do 90 there's like
Sam: four or five that really matter right and as we've talked about before it could
Sam: just be like we change one comma in whatever agreements already existed and
Sam: he can declare victory and you're done you know it doesn't have to be a substantive well i mean.
Ivan: He's going to here's a problem there's 90 of these here's the other thing okay
Ivan: look some people are just right now refusing to play ball.
Sam: Well and and like they're just so they're like.
Ivan: They're they're just like fuck you we're not gonna play ball.
Sam: Well right because there's no even if you did there's no trust that anything
Sam: you do would matter like You mentioned,
Sam: well, last week you talked about, in a different context, the renegotiation of NAFTA, right?
Ivan: Right.
Sam: Well, and it changed some really minor things and Trump declared— Very minor. But here's the thing.
Sam: Trump got into office— Now he's refudiating. Yeah. Trump got back into office
Sam: and he ripped it to shreds. So what good was that agreement?
Ivan: Right. What good was Canada and Mexico going and negotiating with him when just
Ivan: a short amount of time later he would just, you know.
Ivan: Just renege on everything. Yeah.
Sam: Yeah. I mean, he's doing that left. Like most of what he's doing with tariffs
Sam: is violating one previous agreement or another.
Sam: And, you know, someone pointed out.
Ivan: Like 20 of those countries around that number had free trade agreements with
Ivan: the United States already.
Sam: And someone pointed out, like, it's not just like a standard bit of international
Sam: affairs that everyone has typically assumed in the past.
Sam: is that if a country signs a treaty or signs an agreement, even if it's not
Sam: an official treaty, then subsequent governments of that country are still bound by that agreement.
Sam: And so, you know, you have governments come and go, but the new government respects
Sam: the previous agreements.
Sam: And hell, that even happened when, like, big changes, like the Soviet Union
Sam: becomes Russia plus all the independent states, right?
Sam: Like, even then, those obligations were carried forward.
Sam: Donald Trump has shown that he not only doesn't care about agreements signed
Sam: by other presidents, he doesn't care about the agreements he signed himself.
Sam: I mean, and in that scenario, how can you possibly trust anything?
Sam: And what point is there in doing the negotiation other than to end up effectively
Sam: genuflecting to Donald Trump?
Sam: And maybe in the short term, he'll let you off the hook. Like,
Sam: I mean, we had we had a couple rounds of this at the beginning with Canada,
Sam: Mexico and Colombia, where basically he's like tariffs.
Sam: And then they're like, hey, why don't we do this that we were going to do anyway?
Sam: But why don't we do this? And he's like, OK, delay in the tariffs,
Sam: you know, but there's only how many cycles of that is anybody going to be willing to go through?
Ivan: Well, yeah, and it's just that right now, I think the Chinese,
Ivan: for example, are just fed up. They've decided that they're not.
Ivan: He went, he said, yeah, they're done. They said, oh, bring us a proposal.
Ivan: And he's like, and they're like, why? Why?
Ivan: You know, listen, you're the one that started the trade war. Where are your demands?
Ivan: What are you asking for? I mean, that's reasonable. Because this thing of asking about,
Ivan: that he's asking for, like, to balance the trade. It's just nuts,
Ivan: okay? It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, how do we do it?
Ivan: You know, you want us to balance the trade? How?
Ivan: What the hell are we wanting from you that we could use for an extra couple
Ivan: of hundred billion dollars in terms of merchandise?
Ivan: Because, again, he's not, they're not looking at services. They're not looking at anything else.
Ivan: And, like, everybody has made as an example, It's like the whole thing,
Ivan: like going to a grocery store and getting pissed off at them.
Ivan: Hey, I have a trade imbalance with you.
Ivan: You need to buy back from me like, you know, you know, $12,000 a year of stuff.
Sam: You know, like it seems like, you know, and I know the impact on some countries will be significant.
Sam: But it seems like in almost all these cases, given how irrational and how inconsistent
Sam: Donald Trump is, the only real response is like, dude, do whatever you're going to do.
Sam: We're just going to ignore you. Like, whatever happens, happens.
Sam: And but, you know, we're not going to respond. I mean, some of them are retaliating,
Sam: but I feel like just doing nothing and ignoring it and saying,
Sam: okay, you're hurting yourself with the tariffs.
Sam: Yeah, we get some collateral damage on our side.
Sam: We'll figure out how to deal with it is probably the smartest.
Sam: Now, there are a few countries, like China specifically, if they really wanted
Sam: to get aggressive here, like I mentioned on the Commissions Corner Slack,
Sam: and this is really extreme, and there are all kinds of reasons why they wouldn't do this.
Sam: But China could theoretically say, you know what, you don't want our goods.
Sam: We're just going to stop.
Sam: Complete outright ban on exports to the United States for 30 days,
Sam: 60 days, 90 days, whatever.
Ivan: They could do that. I mean, you know, well, listen, they've done already –,
Ivan: One of the things that they did was, you know, they're they're not allowing
Ivan: Boeing to deliver airplanes to to Chinese airlines like right now.
Sam: Yeah, no, no, definitely that. But what I'm saying is like, you know.
Ivan: No, but that's that's an aggressive move is what I'm saying.
Ivan: Yeah, no, that's aggressive.
Sam: What I'm saying is like the move I suggested. No, I know.
Ivan: Which is to suspend everything that we don't they don't ship anything to us.
Sam: What I'm saying is that. What I'm saying is in that scenario,
Sam: it would basically be like, you don't want our stuff,
Sam: feel the pain of not having our stuff because you have no idea how much of what
Sam: your people consume on a daily basis is from here.
Sam: And, and like, see how long it takes until you scream uncle.
Ivan: Right, right, right, right, right. I mean, they could do that,
Ivan: but that also would be quite economically painful. Oh, it would hurt them too.
Sam: Absolutely. It would be brutal. But China has shown, through what their response
Sam: to the pandemic was, they're willing to accept some pain.
Ivan: Listen, they're already accepting pain, like, right now.
Ivan: Look, there is a lot of canceled orders, increased costs, shit like that that
Ivan: is already happening with these tariffs in place, like, right now.
Ivan: And they're accepting that pain, like, right now. And they're accepting the
Ivan: pain because they figure, and rightly so, that they can withstand more pain than we can.
Ivan: Because it's less tenable politically over here.
Ivan: You know, she doesn't have to run for an election.
Ivan: Nobody over there has to run really for an election. They're not worried about the next election.
Ivan: The Republicans have to worry about midterms pretty soon. and special elections and some other stuff.
Ivan: And they already have an amount of pain inflicting on people that is already
Ivan: hurting a lot of their constituents, that it's already showing up in the approval
Ivan: ratings for the president.
Ivan: I mean, for the first time ever, finally, it took this to beat this into people's heads.
Ivan: The Democrats right now finally have an edge on handling the economy in recent surveys. It took...
Ivan: Biden losing, well, the Democrats losing because Biden wasn't running,
Ivan: and for Trump to once again display his lack of any skills at doing this, for people to, I mean,
Ivan: realize, geez,
Ivan: these Republicans are really shitty at this, aren't they?
Ivan: I mean, they've done it to us over and over, over and over, Sam, my lifetime.
Sam: Yes, yes.
Ivan: I mean, I don't get it. How the hell they skate with this shit?
Ivan: Oh, yeah, they're better on the economy.
Ivan: Look, back in the 80s, we had the SNL crisis. Okay?
Ivan: That fucking SNL crisis was due to basically Republican-led deregulation of
Ivan: these damn savings and loans, which basically, they just were out there totally
Ivan: unregulated, And it's just fucking like loaning money left and right.
Ivan: And, you know, we had half a half a trillion dollars of bad loans out there
Ivan: and we had to pick up the mess and it caused a big recession.
Ivan: And, you know, and so that that was that was the first time that W came along more to regulation,
Ivan: fucked us again with, you know, the 2008 crash, which was the biggest part of
Ivan: it was also deregulation of the financial sector.
Ivan: That they nailed us with lack of oversight and the financial sector just took
Ivan: crazy risk again and fucked us over again, okay?
Ivan: Second time, okay? And then, you know, look, Trump, what has he done?
Ivan: I mean, the first time, he kind of like coasted through and like did some tax
Ivan: breaks, but the reality is, and look, he grossly mismanaged the pandemic, okay?
Ivan: Yep. That's just a fact, okay? The pandemic was way worse and people have been
Ivan: at each other's throats and angrier because of him. Yep. Period.
Ivan: End of discussion. Biden comes in, the economy, he did a lot of actions that
Ivan: actually did a lot of the things that he purportedly said he was going to do.
Ivan: Infrastructure week, Sam. Remember how many infrastructure weeks we had under
Ivan: the first Trump? He didn't pass a single fucking infrastructure bill. The wall.
Sam: Wall.
Ivan: Oh, yeah, we got about three or four miles of wall. And then Biden passed an
Ivan: infrastructure bill, and then this motherfucker comes back, and he starts like
Ivan: basically trying to undermine it, even though it's the shit that he wanted done
Ivan: in the first place. Yeah.
Sam: I mean, this guy is just...
Ivan: Oh, and bringing back manufacturing, also undermining that one.
Ivan: Because, I mean, Biden knew that you can't just force them to bring the factories back.
Ivan: So, hey, let's... Big incentives. Hey, let's target certain industries.
Ivan: Let's go and let's, you know, let's, you know, electric cars.
Ivan: Yeah, that's important. It's not just like.
Sam: Let's bring back sock manufacturers. Sneaker manufacturers.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: Right. You know, like the survey showed. It's let's do clean energy stuff. But of course.
Ivan: Let's do the future. Because, you know, the past, you know. Hey, we're not. No, no.
Sam: Yvonne, clean coal is the future. Ah, the clean coal.
Ivan: Yes, I forgot. Or what does he call it?
Sam: Beautiful clean coal? Beautiful clean coal.
Ivan: Something like that. Yes. Yes. The beautiful clean coal.
Ivan: What the fuck, man? So he goes and he spent the whole fucking weekend trying
Ivan: to badger Powell to lower rates. Yep.
Ivan: Pete on our Slack mentioned probably quite accurately that,
Ivan: and I'm pretty sure he is right on this,
Ivan: that part of the reason why Carter inherited such a bad financial situation
Ivan: was because Nixon did the same thing in the early 70s,
Ivan: with the oil shock and shit because inflation was going through the roof and
Ivan: the economy was in the crapper.
Ivan: And then he like had wanted the Fed to lower interest rates.
Ivan: Problem is, as I've said here repeatedly, is it's very inflationary.
Ivan: And so, you know, Carter wound up with this inflation that was like raging because
Ivan: of all this shit that Nixon had put in place between the oil embargo and that kind of stuff.
Ivan: the policies that he did that weren't helping that situation,
Ivan: and he wound up in a very difficult situation.
Ivan: So, this shit is likely to do the same kind of crap.
Ivan: It's not a great outcome, Sam.
Sam: Now, let's mention for a second, like,
Sam: according to the laws that exist, Donald Trump cannot actually remove the Fed chair.
Ivan: That's Correct, yes. But look, that being illegal hasn't stopped him from trying.
Sam: Now, if I understand correctly, he could theoretically remove him for cause,
Sam: and that's the loophole because he can make up a cause.
Sam: and then the question is like, well, what's the, you know, who adjudicates whether
Sam: the cause is good enough, Go to the courts.
Sam: It'll have to go to courts. It'll have to go up to SCOTUS and then SCOTUS will
Sam: have to decide, like, can the president decide on his own authority? Sam, have you.
Ivan: Noticed something that's happened the last couple of weeks with SCOTUS?
Sam: They have been going against Trump more often, but not just that.
Ivan: It's not just good to going against Trump. It, It's the speed.
Sam: Yes, they have been asking relatively quickly.
Ivan: Now, they sent out like a fucking like ruling the other day at one in the,
Ivan: you know, in the middle of the fucking night. Okay.
Sam: Because they were looking to
Sam: stop some additional deportation flights that were about to happen. Right.
Ivan: Yeah. All of a sudden, you know, these fucking assholes that enabled this whole fucking scenario.
Sam: These same assholes who decided to take nine months to issue a ruling on presidential
Sam: immunity and all this. Right.
Ivan: And then issue one that basically is just, you know, preposterous.
Ivan: Let's be clear about this.
Ivan: And basically enabled this guy to think he could act with impunity.
Ivan: Now all of a sudden are like, oh, shit.
Ivan: You know, and worse. I mean, they declared, for example, that he could legally run for president.
Sam: Alito did put in a dissent saying that the rest of the court was being hasty.
Sam: Rushed and hasty.
Ivan: Here's the interesting thing. The only two guys that put in those objections
Ivan: was Alito and fucking Thomas.
Ivan: Not even his appointees were on board with his shit. Yeah.
Sam: I mean, I think we're still barreling towards what I mean.
Sam: I predicted last week that Trump would not make it an explicit confrontation
Sam: with the court and try to basically say he's following what they say while still
Sam: not actually following what they say. But we'll see.
Sam: I think we've got several more issues that are going to adapt to SCOTUS.
Sam: I think this is escalating. But here's the.
Ivan: Thing that's happening right now. One of the things that he was counting on
Ivan: was SCOTUS... Rubber stamping what he did. Or no, taking their time.
Ivan: Right. Because the one thing that he's always... It's delay, delay, delay.
Ivan: Well, all of a sudden, SCOTUS has been, oh, fuck these delays.
Ivan: No, we're sending out something, like, quicker.
Ivan: Which kind of short circuits a big part of his MO, okay? By moving that quickly. Right.
Ivan: But, you know, again, these are the assholes that went and ruled that for some
Ivan: reason, the fucking constitutional amendment, which basically said that he should
Ivan: not have been allowed to run for fucking president.
Ivan: OK, that it was. Oh, no, just Congress is the one that decides.
Ivan: I'm like, you know, fuck, that's not what it said. It's any of that.
Sam: Well, you. Yeah, we don't have to rehash that one. But but they could have.
Ivan: They have.
Sam: Congress should have passed legislation a century or more ago on how to go about that.
Sam: And actually, there was some legislation in the aftermath of the Civil War,
Sam: but it expired. It had an expiration date on it in terms of defining what the
Sam: procedures were to determine who was affected.
Ivan: Yeah, but hell, I didn't realize that that legislation existed.
Ivan: If it had that already in place, why the fuck did they act like it was just
Ivan: Congress? Like, I mean, it's just...
Sam: Well, Congress did that legislation. I mean, basically, in the wake of the Civil
Sam: War, Congress passed actual legislation that defined how to... No, no, no.
Ivan: But how was the process? I mean, do you recall? I don't remember what the process was.
Sam: There was a process that expired, like, X number of decades after the Civil
Sam: War, because they put an end date on it.
Ivan: Well, they enabled the monster. Yes.
Sam: And so now.
Ivan: They've got to figure out how to deal with it. Yeah.
Sam: And...
Sam: I think we still have a situation where it is situational, like how many of
Sam: the justices will be on which side.
Sam: But we've had a sequence of cases over the last couple of weeks where the court
Sam: has clearly had the majority for, yeah, no, this is not okay.
Ivan: And the only two guys that are just on the hard line on some occasions.
Ivan: Because even in one case, they went 9-0. they were like totally unanimous but
Ivan: in the ones that the only guys that are peeling off are alito and thomas right.
Sam: So we shall see things up and down in the courts any any market predictions for the rest of the week,
Sam: it depends what.
Ivan: The futures were
Ivan: up a little bit today i don't know you know
Ivan: we see how asha is doing right now and we go and like put it on i mean i don't
Ivan: know i did turn off but i i mean i don't know it's just look it's it's we're
Ivan: not going back to highs anytime soon i'll tell you that right now you think
Ivan: it'll be a while it'll just gonna be a while except in gold,
Ivan: gold keeps soaring i it's just i mean i i it's just it's just ridiculous the
Ivan: amount of the percentage that gold is up right now since, I mean,
Ivan: I, I, I, since I bought gold in early February right now,
Ivan: up 16 percent okay.
Sam: It's not even three.
Ivan: Months nice okay it's just it's just it's just crazy that gold is up that much
Ivan: in such a brief period of time okay.
Sam: Let let's take a break and then we can do at least two more things we'll see
Sam: about more than that but so this break i mentioned last week that the next break
Sam: was supposed to be a wiki of the day break oh wait i was gonna give the Asia market.
Ivan: Something kind of flat. Asia's maybe a little bit down, kind of flat.
Ivan: Nothing to write home about right now. Okay.
Ivan: And the futures for tomorrow, they were showing up last time I checked,
Ivan: slightly up for the U.S. Buy, buy, buy.
Sam: Right?
Ivan: Buy the dip?
Sam: Is it time to buy the dip yet?
Ivan: No, it's not time to buy the dip. Try to tell people it's not even close to
Ivan: buying to fucking dip maybe look if trump has a heart attack tomorrow then it's time to buy what what.
Sam: If what if you've just stuck to and maintained dollar cost averaging over this
Sam: whole period just keep at it well listen.
Ivan: I i i one thing i would say is like during this time i i think that if you've
Ivan: got a program like buying like say your ira for example like your 401k,
Ivan: depositing, you should continue buying because these are at low prices.
Ivan: What I'm saying is that if you
Ivan: sold a significant position like a few months, like the gold I sold, but.
Sam: I am not.
Ivan: Moving right now from gold into something. I expect at some point to do a pivot
Ivan: on that, but it's not right now. Right.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: It's not, and I don't expect it to be in the next couple of months either.
Sam: Okay. So anyway, I was saying last week I was supposed to use a Wiki of the
Sam: Day break, but I didn't have time. I didn't prepare it.
Sam: So this week, as I was going to prepare the Wiki of the Day break,
Sam: my son Alex came and had a specific request.
Sam: Like I normally just pick randomly one of the three current Wiki of the Days
Sam: whenever I include one here. But Alex did not want that.
Sam: Alex had a specific episode from last year that he wanted me to include.
Sam: So we went and found that episode from last year. It was from last June.
Sam: And I will use that as the break. It's not the special curmudgeon's corner version
Sam: of Wiki of the Day. It's the actual full episode, but here we go.
Sam: A special Alex selection for a wiki of the day that is especially meaningful
Sam: to him and that we hope will be meaningful to you too.
Break: Featured wiki of the day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
Break: The featured article for Wednesday, June 26, 2024 is torture.
Break: Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person
Break: for various reasons, including punishment, extracting a confession,
Break: interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties.
Break: Some definitions are restricted to acts carried out by the state,
Break: but others include non-state organizations.
Break: Most victims of torture are poor and marginalized people suspected of crimes,
Break: although torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict has received
Break: disproportionate attention.
Break: Judicial corporal punishment and capital punishment are sometimes seen as forms
Break: of torture, but this label is internationally controversial.
Break: A variety of methods of torture are used, often in combination.
Break: The most common form of physical torture is beatings. Since the 20th century,
Break: many torturers have preferred non-scarring or psychological methods to provide deniability.
Break: Torturers more commonly act out of fear or due to limited resources than sadism.
Break: Although most torturers are thought to learn about torture techniques informally
Break: and rarely receive an explicit order, they are enabled by organizations that
Break: facilitate and encourage their behavior.
Break: Once a torture program is begun, it usually escalates beyond what is intended
Break: initially and often leads to involved agencies losing effectiveness.
Break: Aims to break the victim's will and destroy their agency and personality and
Break: is cited as one of the most damaging experiences that a person can undergo.
Break: Many victims suffer both physical damage, chronic pain is particularly common, and mental sequelae.
Break: Although torture survivors have among the highest rates of post-traumatic stress
Break: disorder, many are psychologically resilient.
Break: Torture has been carried out since ancient times.
Break: Still, in the 18th and 19th centuries, many Western countries abolished the
Break: official use of torture in the judicial system, although torture continued to
Break: be used throughout the world.
Break: Public opinion research has shown general opposition to torture.
Break: Torture is prohibited under international law for all states under all circumstances
Break: and is explicitly forbidden by several treaties.
Break: Opposition to torture stimulated the formation of the human rights movement
Break: after World War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue.
Break: Although prevention efforts have been of mixed effectiveness,
Break: institutional reforms and elimination of incommunicado detention have had positive effects.
Break: Although its incidence has declined, torture is still practiced in most countries.
Break: This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 2.05 UTC on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Break: For the full current version of the article, search Wikipedia for torture.
Break: This podcast uses content from wikipedia under the
Break: creative commons attribution share like license visit our archives at wiki of
Break: the day.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes follow us on mastodon
Break: at wiki of the day at masto.ai also check out curmudgeon's corner a current
Break: events podcast until next time i'm neural joanna well.
Sam: There we go wow was it was it as touching for you as it is for alex,
Sam: warm and fuzzies inside from no.
Ivan: Not exactly. No. From a, from a fucking like, you know, academic,
Ivan: you know, discussion on torture. Yeah.
Sam: Okay. Um, I guess it's my turn. Yes.
Ivan: I guess I added some things. So to remind you certain things. Yeah.
Sam: As we were.
Ivan: Yes.
Sam: I saw you adding things, but you know, Well, I'm going to do my movie.
Ivan: Okay, go through your goal. All right, goal movie. All right, what do we got? My movie.
Sam: Twilight Zone. No, not yet. Well, Twilight Zone's a TV show if you're looking
Sam: on. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's a TV show.
Ivan: Not a movie, not a movie. But no, Adiparash.
Sam: Adiparash.
Ivan: I don't even know what the fuck this is.
Sam: So it's because it's an Indian movie.
Sam: in Hindi or Tagaloo, Telugu, sorry.
Ivan: I'm looking at, before you continue, I looked it up. Okay, yes.
Ivan: Wow, this is interesting.
Ivan: It has a 2.7 out of 10 on IMDB.
Ivan: And it has a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ivan: Yes. holy shit that's that's that's not good I mean a 2.7 on IMDB is has to be one of the worst.
Sam: Movies on IMDB.
Ivan: It has to be so.
Sam: Let me tell you so first of all this is the first one we've watched that's like
Sam: an Indian language movie I don't I think we watched the Hindi version with English subtitles,
Sam: but it's look
Sam: my my experience while watching
Sam: it was just oh my god this is
Sam: so bizarre okay and part of this was like i was like is this just what bollywood
Sam: is like i haven't watched a real bollywood movie before and this is this wasn't
Sam: really like the song and dance kind although there was a little bit of that
Sam: okay so by the way i just looked it up yeah it is ranked.
Ivan: As the not the worst one.
Sam: On imdb.
Ivan: But it is 30th 30th okay.
Sam: Yes it is it.
Ivan: Is it's a bit that basically mean there's only 29 movies that are worse that nip on imdb yes.
Sam: So this was so just to read the the wikipedia summary real quick.
Sam: The name translates to The First Man. It's a 2023 Indian mythological action
Sam: film inspired by the Hindu epic Ramayana. It's,
Sam: blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was heavily panned by critics and audience
Sam: alike who critiqued the screenplay, dialogues, and visuals.
Sam: It emerged as a block of a novel. Everything, basically.
Ivan: There's nothing good about it. Not the writing, not the acting,
Ivan: and not any of the special effects, not the filming, nothing.
Sam: So here's the thing, though. When I was watching it, I was just sort of stunned
Sam: by, like... How bad it was?
Sam: Well, the thing is, it was so stylized as well. And I honestly wasn't sure,
Sam: is it supposed to be this way?
Sam: Like, is it over the top and bad on purpose?
Sam: And like, you know, I did some... It is almost, almost at the point where it's
Sam: bad enough to be entertaining by how bad it is.
Ivan: But you said almost, but barely almost, but not there.
Sam: You know well you know like there's that other
Sam: one uh what was the other bad one you sent me to that
Sam: we've talked about on the show before that that
Sam: you watched the one with the bounty hunter guy trying to rescue the the the
Sam: woman who'd been kidnapped it was really low budget really bad low blow low
Sam: blow yes that yeah yeah low blow yeah yeah low blow walked out listen.
Ivan: We walked out of the theater on low blow low.
Sam: Blow was bad in a way that was just bad there yeah that was i mean there was.
Ivan: No you know you it was just bad you couldn't there was.
Sam: No redeeming qualities you couldn't even laugh at how bad it was no this on
Sam: the other bad this on the other hand i will say like i the whole time it did
Sam: have my attention because
Sam: was like, what the fuck is going on now?
Sam: Like there were just crazy things happening. There were just weird special effects.
Sam: Like apparently one of the criticisms this got when it was released was apparently
Sam: there was a trailer that went out where the special effects were really horrible.
Sam: And so they improved the special effects before they released the movie,
Sam: but it was still really bad.
Sam: And, you know, but they're just sort of, the whole thing was surreal.
Sam: It was surrealistic and like, and it just, I'm actually going to give it a thumbs
Sam: sideways, not a thumbs down, you know? Wow.
Sam: Because while I could not by any stretch of the imagination say this was good,
Sam: the whole damn time I was intrigued.
Sam: I was like, what the hell is going on? What is happening?
Sam: Why is this happening? Now, some of it I'm sure is because like,
Sam: I'm not familiar with the Hindu epic that this was based on.
Sam: If I was, maybe I'd have more context, but I had none of that going into this.
Sam: So it was just all just weird and bizarre.
Sam: And it had the surrealistic style and the bad CGI and, you know, people.
Sam: It's hard to even describe the damn thing all super saturated colors yeah,
Sam: like i'm not i it was 179 minutes long i can tell you right now i would not
Sam: want to watch all 179 minutes oh jesus 179 minutes holy shit fucking three.
Ivan: Hour movie yes.
Sam: And you know but i will say it's worth watching at least a few minutes of like
Sam: if you can find where this is streaming and watch a few minutes of it and just get a flavor.
Sam: Maybe skip around, fast forward, rewind, pick random spots in the middle.
Sam: Like the plot is incoherent enough to an outsider who doesn't know this that
Sam: I don't think it matters where in the movie you start.
Sam: You just pick a random spot and watch five to 10 minutes and you'll get the idea.
Sam: And, you know, again, my, my fundamental reaction is, was being stunned,
Sam: being like, what the hell, what the hell am I watching?
Sam: I don't get it, but it's somehow still drawing me in to like.
Sam: It, not quite a train wreck kind of way.
Sam: more like you know and i i honestly haven't done this so i'm talking via anecdote
Sam: but like some kind of psychedelic trip you know it's just like weird and bizarre
Sam: and colorful and you know so,
Sam: i don't have any real psychedelic trips to compare it
Sam: to in my history but it's what i imagined that would be like
Sam: so there you go thumb sideways
Sam: for adipurish adipurish i don't
Sam: know the right way to pronounce it i'm sorry no better a
Sam: di you are ush and you're giving it a thumb sideways and and i'm pretty sure
Sam: i watched the hindi version but apparently it was released both in hindi and
Sam: telugu from the beginning but it didn't matter i don't know either one of those
Sam: languages i mean and so i watched that's what i was gonna.
Ivan: Say i'm like what the hell like what makes a fucking difference but i'm like
Ivan: i'm assuming obviously it's subtitled yes.
Sam: I watched the English. Not dubbed.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: We watched it with English subtitles. Yeah. I try to be like,
Sam: I try to avoid dubbing like for almost everything. Like I will go it.
Sam: I will search out the subtitled version.
Sam: Like we aren't at this yet, but I, there was a Godzilla movie that we watched
Sam: later from this where the first place I found it streaming was dubbed.
Sam: And I actually went and bought a DVD of the movie so that I could get a subtitled
Sam: version instead of a dubbed version.
Ivan: When I was in Puerto Rico, when I was growing up.
Ivan: In the theaters, or actually, I haven't been to a movie in the theater in Puerto
Ivan: Rico, but I'm assuming this is still the case. They're always subtitled in Spanish.
Ivan: Okay? Puerto Rico, they did not play dubbed versions. Thank God.
Ivan: Okay? They always had just subtitled versions of all the movies. Okay?
Ivan: But on TV, local TV, everything was dubbed. Okay?
Ivan: All the TV programs, everything was dubbed. And at first growing up,
Ivan: I mean, i was like whatever i didn't know anything else but when i first started except movies on tv.
Ivan: At movies at the theater right um then when
Ivan: i started to be able to get some of these versions like a
Ivan: whole a lot of it like in english because
Ivan: i knew english okay so it became like really
Ivan: really irritating where i was just
Ivan: like i don't want anything else dubbed ever again
Ivan: please if i can avoid it i just cannot i i really
Ivan: the ones that i will say that actually were
Ivan: not that bad well actually
Ivan: don't let's change that the cart there were actually
Ivan: good the cartoons i will say that
Ivan: i don't know if they did something with with it
Ivan: additionally in order to make it that it wasn't dubbed but watching the flintstones
Ivan: in spanish you know what listen it's i mean they got some guy that did a good
Ivan: friend flintstone in spanish okay all right and you know you don't have it so
Ivan: it worked out it it was actually pretty good okay the flintstones in spanish they were funny okay.
Ivan: Whereas almost every other tv program that was dubbed was just i mean it was just annoying i i mean.
Sam: Like the thing is with live action you definitely have the the misalignment
Sam: between what you're seeing on the screen and the talking and that does go away
Sam: in the cartoon because like.
Ivan: It's a.
Sam: Voice actor anyway. Yes, it's a voice actor anyway. The lips don't match exactly anyway. You know?
Sam: But, you know, even there, I feel like,
Sam: I don't have a current show like this, but there are shows on my list that if
Sam: I ever start them, are cartoons where the original language is not English.
Sam: I would still seek out the original language, you know, just to be more authentic.
Ivan: Oh, for most of them, you're right. It just happened to be that the Flintstones
Ivan: in Spanish turned out to be pretty damn good. You know, whoever they got to
Ivan: play the characters in Spanish actually worked out very well.
Ivan: And the names they picked in the translations were also hilarious.
Ivan: OK, because they didn't call it wasn't Fred Flintstone in Spanish.
Ivan: It was Pedro Pica Piedra.
Ivan: OK, and that name was actually pretty damn good. You know, Barney Rubble was
Ivan: Pablo Marmol, for example.
Ivan: And all those names are names that you talk in Spanish.
Ivan: it's one of those things where that one, whoever did it, really took the time
Ivan: no, no, no, we gotta make this right so this works, okay?
Ivan: And they really did, you know, whoever they picked for the voiceovers and whatever
Ivan: they had a very similar like...
Ivan: they knew how to play the character okay as well
Ivan: so they did a good job but on most many of them they reuse the same voice actors
Ivan: for a whole bunch of fucking tvs tv programs so it's really annoying because
Ivan: it's like you're watching say the six million dollar man and then you're watching
Ivan: magma but i'm like what the fuck's the same goddamn voice on both different
Ivan: programs this is really annoying although.
Sam: I gather in some cases now for cartoons because they're building for an international
Sam: audience to begin with, it's getting harder to determine what is the original
Sam: language because right off the bat,
Sam: they're animating it once with the intention of we're going to hire casts for 15 languages.
Ivan: I'll tell you one thing that was like that. Okay, for example,
Ivan: my son watched when he was little was Pocoyo, which is from Spain originally.
Ivan: And they had an English version of Pocoyo as well. They actually had two different
Ivan: English versions. I remember one for British English, for American English.
Sam: I've watched all three versions of Folkio.
Ivan: And so the thing is that that one was one that really, you know,
Ivan: it's very obvious that they planned it for all three languages.
Ivan: But I will say I definitely liked it. It's a lot better in Spanish.
Ivan: That one, I cannot argue that one. To me, it was a little bit annoying. I'm like, oh, fuck.
Ivan: God, we recorded an English episode.
Sam: The thing is, even if they know from the beginning they're going to have voice
Sam: acting casts for like 20 languages.
Sam: They're writing the episode first in one language.
Sam: That's the one I want to find because that's the one that's going to be most
Sam: natural and closer to the intent.
Sam: But if I don't know the language, I'm still going off the captions and there's
Sam: still liberties taken with captions.
Sam: One of the things, if nothing else, you have to translate the idioms to something
Sam: that makes sense for the language you're in, because you'd be like, what?
Sam: Because idioms don't translate literally, usually.
Sam: But also, I've noticed even... We always watch TV with the captions on.
Sam: And so one of the things that Alex and I regularly do is notice when the captions
Sam: don't match what the person said.
Sam: And it's all the fucking time. Even in English captions for an English show.
Sam: They're mismatches all the time.
Sam: Most commonly, it's like shortened
Sam: phrases, like where they simplify the sentence to get it on the screen.
Sam: But sometimes it's just completely different. And it's like...
Ivan: I'll tell you the one that was like hilarious beyond that was,
Ivan: I always loved when they translated movie titles for posters.
Ivan: Where it's just that some of the movie titles played, but some it was just like,
Ivan: what it's called in Spanish. What? We were like, just, we just,
Ivan: we just, you know, laughing.
Ivan: I'm like, what the, I mean, the, the, the names that they picked made just no sense.
Ivan: Like whatsoever. You were just like, oh, okay, sure.
Ivan: You know, well, I don't know. So anyway, okay.
Sam: All right. Well, pick a topic.
Ivan: My turn, pick a topic. So is Hackset going to be out?
Sam: You know, when that, When that first signal thing happened, my prediction was
Sam: that there would be heads that rolled.
Sam: But it wasn't his. No, no. But no, my prediction was, but there'd be a delay. Okay.
Sam: You know, it would not be immediate. There'd be a long enough period of time
Sam: such that you could do it without tying it directly back to the signal incident.
Sam: Okay. But, and also I said, with this particular group of people,
Sam: they will have done something else by then anyway. Right.
Sam: And Haggith, how do you say his damn name? Haggith.
Ivan: Haggith.
Sam: Anyway, he has indeed done other things.
Sam: The most recent thing was another signal conversation where apparently.
Ivan: With his brother and his wife on his personal phone. Right.
Sam: Talking about the same sort of classified Yemen stuff, apparently also just
Sam: the actual internal dynamics of what's going on at the Pentagon,
Sam: the place is in entirely in chaos because,
Sam: you know, he does, he has no idea what he's doing and everybody is worried and
Sam: concerned and they're contradictory things going on.
Sam: And so, you know, apparently, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, things aren't going well
Sam: at the Defense Department anyway.
Sam: got this stuff going on and he did something else too
Sam: didn't he didn't he do something else too i don't remember but
Sam: and apparently trump's rapid
Sam: response team a few hours ago like
Sam: retweeted something a report from
Sam: somewhere else talking about how haggis
Sam: was on his way out and it's like oops like
Sam: they so far like haven't
Sam: like you know it's not official
Sam: right there was an npr report saying that the administration has started to
Sam: look for his replacement that's the most solid information we have right now
Sam: yeah but that there is no official statement that says he's out he's still acting
Sam: like he's there he said this is all bullshit there is one thing.
Ivan: Though there i I will.
Sam: Say this.
Ivan: You know, Trump did a very strong defense of him today. Okay.
Ivan: You know, in my experience, every time that one of these guys comes out in a
Ivan: strong defense of somebody, it really means, oh, this guy is toast. Yeah.
Sam: Usually the we're 100% behind him statement comes about five minutes before
Sam: the knife and back. Correct.
Ivan: Yes. Yeah. Is this some kind of a record for a, for a, for a.
Ivan: If he's gone, say, in the next couple of weeks, is this some kind of record
Ivan: for the shortest tenure of a secretary of the feds?
Sam: Ooh, good question.
Sam: Let's see if we can find out anything about that.
Ivan: This has got to be some kind of record. Wikipedia.
Sam: Let's see. Like, okay. Okay, let's find out how far. So far,
Sam: he's been 86 days. Uh-huh.
Sam: Should we count? We're not counting acting.
Ivan: Not counting acting.
Sam: Because apparently the acting secretary of state immediately before Haggis was Robert G.
Sam: Selesis, who served for five days. Okay.
Ivan: Okay. Okay.
Sam: But like ignore the acting. So he's at 86 days. Lloyd Austin was one day short of four years.
Sam: Mark Esper was one year, 109. Let's look for anybody under a year. Yeah.
Ivan: Oh.
Sam: Elliot Richardson is
Sam: in administration, 114 days. That's close. We're at 86.
Ivan: Why the hell did Elliot and Richard...
Sam: If we fire him right now... Break the record.
Sam: I still haven't gone all the way back. Then we had Clark Clifford at 125 days. That's higher.
Ivan: Shit, that's way higher.
Sam: 356 days for George C. Marshall.
Sam: And then that's it for Secretary of Defense.
Sam: Now, Secretary of Defense replaced, like, that was only created in 1947.
Sam: So, like, what was the predecessor for it? See?
Ivan: Okay, so what happened was the reason why he wound up leaving SecDef is because
Ivan: it says, after only three months as Secretary of Defense, Richardson becomes
Ivan: Nixon's Attorney General, a move that would put him into Watergate's spotlight.
Ivan: So I guess that was like, I guess he had gotten rid of the previous Attorney
Ivan: General, so he wound up needing somebody, and he said, okay, you, yeah, you. Yeah.
Sam: Oh, it was the Secretary of War before it was the Secretary of Defense.
Sam: Let's see if any of them are shorter.
Sam: Oh, oh, the last Secretary of War, Kenneth Royal under Harry Truman, 61 days.
Ivan: Whoa. So why was that?
Sam: The hell?
Ivan: What happened with this guy?
Sam: Royal.
Ivan: Okay, we got to look this up.
Sam: Secretary of War.
Ivan: Kenneth Clair, U.S. Army General, Truman administration.
Ivan: Okay. Oh, interesting. What happened here?
Sam: I'll tell you why.
Ivan: Royal was forced into retirement in April 1949 49 for continuing to refuse to desegregate the army.
Sam: Okay. Good reason.
Ivan: Good damn fucking reason.
Sam: We also had Alfonso Taft under Ulysses S. Grant, who was only 81 days.
Sam: Oh, and, um, well, but as secretary of defense.
Ivan: If he went under the 111 days, he would be the shortcut secretary of defense ever. Yeah.
Sam: We also had, I'm just, I want to keep going back. We had Joseph Holt,
Sam: secretary of war under James Buchanan for only 45 days.
Sam: And which I believe was because the James Buchanan administration ended and
Sam: Abraham Lincoln took over. But...
Sam: And is that it? Is that it? Is that it? Is that it? That's it.
Sam: Going back all the way to George Washington. Those are all the ones under a year. There you go.
Ivan: So. So we're close to record breaking territory. If it happens soon.
Sam: His days are numbered. I think the only question is when.
Sam: Right. Like, I mean, Donald Trump. I mean, the guy's an idiot.
Sam: The guy's an idiot. He's doing stupid things.
Ivan: We knew he was an idiot before. Fucking said it still confirmed.
Ivan: them, even though they knew he was an idiot.
Sam: And look, we're talking idiot by Donald Trump standards. Exactly.
Ivan: We're talking idiot by Donald Trump standards. Yes.
Sam: And that's saying a lot. But yeah, I think the question is timing, though.
Sam: Like Donald Trump doesn't like to fire people because he feels like he's being
Sam: pressured to fire somebody.
Sam: So if there's a lot of pressure to fire him, I think Donald Trump will just
Sam: dig in his heels and keep him longer.
Sam: where Donald Trump wants to do it quietly at a time where he can make it look
Sam: like it's his own idea and it has nothing to do with whatever the scandal of the day is.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: So, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Sam: Should we do it? Should we take a break and do two more or should we wrap it up, Yvonne?
Ivan: I think we could do at least one more. Okay.
Sam: Then let's take another break. Let's see, what break am I supposed to do?
Sam: Number six, one, two, three, four, five, six, okay.
Sam: Break number six, here we go.
Sam: we are back. So I guess that makes it my turn. Um, and I will pick the Pope died.
Ivan: The Pope died. So JD Vance killed him, right?
Sam: That's what I hear. Yeah.
Ivan: You know, the.
Sam: Thing is at first I was like, cause there had been reports that the Pope had
Sam: refused to meet with him and sent an underling instead who basically yelled
Sam: at JD Vance about immigration and being nice to immigrants.
Sam: But apparently that, that did happen, but But apparently the Pope did give him
Sam: a brief audience afterwards.
Sam: And so, yeah, J.D. Vance was one of the last few people with an audience with the Pope.
Ivan: Today, J.D. Vance actually posted this. I guess this is on Shitter.
Ivan: I cannot believe I even have to post this. The rumors running around that I
Ivan: killed the Pope are not true. Wait, wait, wait.
Sam: I thought that was a fake J.D. Vance post. Is that a real J.D.
Sam: Vance post? No, that was a real J.D.
Ivan: Vance post.
Sam: Did you actually confirm this? It really is?
Ivan: Okay, hold on. I got it from somebody who wasn't an unreliable source.
Ivan: But... Because I saw.
Sam: That screenshot and immediately thought it was fake.
Ivan: I don't even know. Hold on. Can I even look at this?
Sam: Okay, I'm actually bringing up. I'm on the shitter.
Ivan: I'm on his shitter.
Sam: Okay, you're on the real Twitter. Okay, then I won't log into my Twitter for
Sam: the first time in forever. I'll let you do it.
Ivan: I'm in there, but not logged in.
Sam: I thought you couldn't see Twitter without logging in. I am seeing posts on.
Ivan: I can delete it by account, but I can see. Okay, go ahead.
Sam: Okay, it doesn't.
Ivan: Okay, I don't see. Hold on. Okay, it was fake.
Ivan: i don't i don't see it but you see i'm not looking at replies right now i can't
Ivan: it doesn't let me look it wasn't a reply the one i.
Sam: Saw was it last.
Ivan: Edited at 9 45 a.m let's see 9 45 a.m problem is that these are not in chrono
Ivan: let's see 18 hours oh yeah i don't see it it may be fake oh well it was oh come on would.
Sam: Have been better.
Ivan: If it was real anyway so.
Sam: Anyway like you know to He was old. He'd been in health.
Sam: He'd had health issues for months and months and months. It appears that the final.
Ivan: A stroke and a heart attack. A stroke, yeah. Look, I.
Ivan: Well, I was raised Catholic, okay? But I haven't really practiced in like. A long time.
Sam: Forever.
Ivan: Even though I will say, look, I went to church like three times in the last
Ivan: two weeks. For funerals.
Sam: For funerals.
Ivan: I mean one of them honestly like he said
Ivan: I think I mentioned this earlier I mean look a lot of us may not practice Catholicism
Ivan: anymore but even like in that case it was just like well it's the only thing
Ivan: we knew how to do what the fuck else did we do you know after he died so you
Ivan: know we did a mass you know,
Ivan: I got nothing we got nothing else I mean we were all there We hadn't been in
Ivan: church like forever None of us,
Ivan: The one thing is that even though I might have Pope Francis is one of the popes
Ivan: that I agreed with on more things than any in my life.
Ivan: There were a couple of things where I, him and I that I did not agree,
Ivan: but I will say that on 90 plus percent of the shit that he was trying to do, he was right.
Sam: Compared to other Catholic popes, he was quite liberal.
Ivan: Well, I mean, compared to some recent popes, You got to remember Vatican second
Ivan: council going back that made a whole bunch of the changes to the current church,
Ivan: including like not giving mass in Latin for God's sakes, because nobody knows fucking Latin. Okay.
Ivan: And shit like that happened. You know, we need to bring back Latin. You know, sure.
Sam: You know, I'll go take some classes. We can start doing the show in Latin.
Ivan: Yeah, I'm sure that'll everybody will love that. but you know those changes
Ivan: like that where there are a whole bunch of changes that that that happened and
Ivan: so that was a very revolutionary,
Ivan: event period yes and then period and then then we had a number of more conservative
Ivan: popes along the way including benedict who it was so bad that he wound up basically
Ivan: resigning you know because it got so bad well and pro france for health reasons,
Ivan: he's still fucking alive.
Sam: Well is he i thought he finally yes.
Ivan: He's still alive he's still alive yeah okay let's.
Sam: See i'm just double checking you oh no he died.
Ivan: Okay sorry he died two years ago okay no at 95 yes okay okay so he did die a
Ivan: couple of years ago but he was alive a hell of a long fucking time after he quit yes he was.
Sam: I mean so.
Ivan: You know almost 10 years but but i thought.
Sam: The reason he resigned was because he felt like he was no longer up to the job.
Ivan: There was a lot of pressure. I mean, his health wasn't great,
Ivan: but there was a lot of pressure around him to fucking resign,
Ivan: especially because of a lot of the scandals related to child abuse and a whole
Ivan: bunch of things that he had done around that and related to that. Yeah, he was just, yeah.
Ivan: ton of pressure. So, but Pope Francis was a guy who was, he was a man of compassion to everybody.
Ivan: And even those he didn't agree with on, on things. Okay. Unlike others.
Ivan: And so, you know, I, I,
Ivan: I, you know, I saw him do many acts with people that
Ivan: were so kind over
Ivan: time and say so many things that were kind and and help
Ivan: a lot of people because the catholic church because of a
Ivan: lot of things that it did over time man it created
Ivan: a lot of shame and hurt and things in
Ivan: a lot of people over decades which is
Ivan: why i don't practice it regularly but you know he he did make a lot of changes
Ivan: in that in the church he was even you know i know he got pushback on that but
Ivan: even including like, he wanted to, like,
Ivan: be able to, like, bless gay unions, for example. Right.
Sam: You know, and.
Ivan: When you hear that and you've been a Catholic and you're gay and,
Ivan: you know, you're, if you're in that and you hear that,
Ivan: man, the message that you're sending to people who feel that they can't leave
Ivan: their religion, but then all of a sudden this guy is saying,
Ivan: hey, you're not, you know, you're not this person that so many others in the
Ivan: religion, like, would despise.
Ivan: That's such a that brings so much to to people, you know,
Ivan: it just it's it's it's it really helps people that have been indoctrinated in
Ivan: this told so many bad things about themselves.
Ivan: And then all of a sudden a man in the leadership goes and says, no, you're not less.
Ivan: No, you're not whatever you really, you know, we value you.
Ivan: I saw today a video where there was a child that in Italy that was in an event
Ivan: that the Pope was, and the child's father had recently passed away.
Ivan: And the child's father had been an atheist. Okay.
Ivan: And he had been, he's a very small kid. He must've been like six, seven or eight.
Ivan: And his father had actually, even though he was an atheist, he had baptized.
Ivan: He had four kids and he had baptized them all.
Ivan: And the kid was at this event with the Pope and the kid was,
Ivan: was sad, you know, his father recently died and he had a question and he asked
Ivan: somebody because he didn't want to say it in public. And then the Pope said, no, no, no, look.
Ivan: And he has my son's name. Well, well, not exactly. Emmanuel, no, not one.
Ivan: Come talk to me. Come talk to me. So he talked to him in secret and he,
Ivan: and he, you know, talk to him.
Ivan: He, he, he comforted him and he sent him back and he asked him if,
Ivan: Hey, I could tell everybody what you said. And he said, you know,
Ivan: me with a question. My dad was an atheist. Is he going to be in heaven?
Ivan: You know, and, and he gave him a very comforting answer, you know,
Ivan: to him that, yes, that, you know, like, you know, you said he was a good man, a good man.
Ivan: God is not going to push away a good man, you know, but,
Ivan: saying those kinds of things to these kids that have been taught this,
Ivan: when you're hearing it from the pope the the the
Ivan: comfort level that descends on these people that
Ivan: that really truly believe that this is the ultimate word it's
Ivan: it's it's it's big and that's the
Ivan: thing that he did more than everybody else he really took the time to say things
Ivan: to comfort people instead of shaming people and instead of like making people
Ivan: feel bad about themselves and so yeah it's sad that he's he passed away because
Ivan: he really did that a lot i saw that there's another video i didn't realize I said a few years ago,
Ivan: he invited a whole bunch of very famous comedians around the world,
Ivan: including Jimmy Fallon and some others and whatever, basically to thank them
Ivan: for something important. He said that you guys all make people laugh.
Ivan: And it's so important for the joy of the world to have people like you that
Ivan: come and like make them laugh.
Ivan: And I wanted to show my appreciation to, to all of you in making it and making
Ivan: the world a happier place.
Ivan: That was really cool. I got to admit.
Ivan: So yeah. So a couple.
Sam: A couple of things there. One, I I'd made a joke. both on the curmudgeon's corner
Sam: slack well did i do it on the slack i did it on mastodon and blue sky but well
Sam: now i know what the popular wiki of the day is going to be because it's always
Sam: like a big person right right right but.
Ivan: I was wrong.
Sam: Just a few seconds ago while you were talking the new popular wiki of the day
Sam: came out well it was it was pope benedict the well it was the pope it's just
Sam: the wrong pope well and here's why because for wiki of the day i have a rule
Sam: that You can't be the popular wiki of the day twice in a hundred day span.
Sam: And Pope Francis, he was the popular wiki of the day back in February when he
Sam: was hospitalized. He was hospitalized.
Ivan: It's too soon.
Sam: So he didn't qualify. And so it dropped down.
Sam: The number of views yesterday, yesterday for UTC, the number one page views
Sam: on Wikipedia was Pope Francis with 2.9 million page views.
Sam: number two was Wrestlemania 41 with,
Sam: with 980,000 views. But that also had been a previous popular wiki of the day,
Sam: like yesterday or something, or the day before, I forget.
Sam: And so number three was Pope Benedict the 16th.
Ivan: Oh, fucking WrestleMania, for God's sakes. I was just listening to people talk about this.
Ivan: I don't, you know, I will say that when I was little, I think like my brothers
Ivan: watched this kind of like wrestling stuff on TV.
Ivan: and i i i think i
Ivan: watched it for a little bit but then i don't know
Ivan: sometime in my early teens
Ivan: i was like what is this bullshit this is this this
Ivan: is horseshit what the fuck is this this this is ridiculous but i i was just
Ivan: seeing a whole bunch of adults today talking about oh my god wrestle mania gotta
Ivan: be there gotta go i'm like thinking the fuck is wrong with all of you it's just
Ivan: this This thing is just complete bullshit.
Ivan: It's stupid. It's ridiculous.
Sam: I mean, it's just.
Ivan: I, the people really love this shit. Yeah, I know.
Sam: So back to Pope stuff for a second. The one other thing to talk about on the
Sam: Pope is the, I've only lived through a couple of these, but the selection of
Sam: the new Pope is fascinating.
Sam: Oh yeah. There's sort of ancient procedures.
Ivan: I recently watched that their movie conclave. Oh, of recently, okay?
Ivan: I gotta tell you, thumbs up.
Sam: You know, your last segment should be Conclave.
Ivan: Thumbs up on Conclave, by the way, okay? It was really, that movie was really
Ivan: good. The movie was really good.
Ivan: I wasn't, I don't know what to
Ivan: expect. I can't remember why I wound up watching it. I think my mom won.
Ivan: Oh, because my mom was like, hey, I want to watch this movie a few months back.
Ivan: And I was at home with her, and I'm like, Okay, let's watch it. What the hell?
Ivan: And I sat there watching it. I'm like, shit, this thing's good.
Ivan: So, yeah, Conclave is quite good. I mean, I've watched a couple of these over
Ivan: the years. Very indiscriminately.
Sam: Process i mean i.
Ivan: I mean most.
Sam: Of it's a secret of course but you get the like they're all,
Sam: you know when i was doors and you wait for
Sam: the white smoke and all this and there's a lot of
Sam: you know there's a lot of speculation in terms of
Sam: like okay did francis appoint
Sam: enough cardinals so that whoever is
Sam: the next pope will like be a
Sam: pope kind of like francis or not quite like we had from pope john paul ii to
Sam: pope benedict we sort of went backwards a bit you know so what's going to happen
Sam: this time we don't know like apparently apparently francis did appoint quite
Sam: a few cardinals but is it well well one.
Ivan: Thing i i and did he put them with.
Sam: That in mind i don't know The processes.
Ivan: Of the inner workings of the Catholic church are to be still something that
Ivan: is just, it's still out of another century.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: I mean, not even this, I mean, not even like. Not even a recent century.
Sam: Not even a recent century.
Ivan: You know, I remember actually having spoken to a couple of people in the Catholic
Ivan: Church that had worked at the Vatican for a while.
Ivan: And it's just always their stories about that. We're always kind of,
Ivan: we're always fascinating about how things happened at the Vatican.
Ivan: You know, it happened, I remember that it happened to be that the guy who was
Ivan: the principal of our high school wound up being somebody that,
Ivan: he wound up being a representative of the Vatican for his religious order for a couple of years.
Ivan: Somebody else I met, I think it was a priest, was at the Vatican,
Ivan: yeah, and that it came back.
Ivan: And so it's, it isn't just that it's, the process of,
Ivan: you know the catholic church is
Ivan: a massive organization that really
Ivan: owns a ton of shit across the world it's it's crazy it's a business it's a there's
Ivan: a bank there's it's it's it's it's just it's nuts how complex it is it is really
Ivan: nuts okay well i mean if you look at.
Sam: There are many ways to look at this. This is only one of them.
Sam: But in some senses, the current Catholic Church is actually the successor to the Roman Empire.
Sam: Basically. It's what's left of the Western Roman Empire.
Sam: Now, there are a whole bunch of different ways you can interpret the history
Sam: of the fall of Rome and both Eastern and Western, but that's one way you could do it.
Sam: And yeah. so so yeah it's.
Ivan: Always so so i don't know it'll be interesting to see and
Ivan: i and i i really i hope that because there
Ivan: are one of the things i was reading today and where jd vance sits because he's
Ivan: a fucking catholic some i mean now he converted what six years ago but but there
Ivan: is there is a group especially in the u.s that has very aligned themselves with
Ivan: the more hardened conservative types.
Ivan: The conservative Catholics, for sure. But I really believe that on a global
Ivan: basis, that group is definitely in the minority based on what I've observed of who,
Ivan: you know, you mentioned how many cardinals Pope Francis appointed.
Ivan: I mean, from what I've observed, he has moved the church definitely towards
Ivan: a more liberal side substantially. That's for sure.
Ivan: Even though in may have entrenched some groups like that so well and what's interesting too.
Sam: Is you know once upon
Sam: a time like long ago at this
Sam: point like the catholic church was predominantly european
Sam: now europe is a small
Sam: portion of the global catholic universe sure and the whole sort of where they
Sam: are theologically in terms of more liberal or more conservative or whatever
Sam: varies a lot country to country as you go across the world.
Sam: And where exactly that balance is, is unclear.
Sam: And also, you know, one of the things with Francis was he was the first non-European
Sam: in like centuries, right?
Sam: As Pope, because he was from Argentina,
Sam: remember, right? Yeah. Yeah, he was. But the question is, is there going to
Sam: be another non-European?
Sam: I mean, remember, for a while, it was not only European, it was only Italians. Yeah. Yeah.
Ivan: It was only Italians.
Sam: And then we got Pope John Paul II from Poland. And then we have Francis from Argentina.
Sam: Well, even Benedict was German, right?
Sam: Yeah, Benedict was German. So we had a series of, you know, non... I mean, I have to.
Ivan: Believe that it's going to be a non-European again. Because,
Ivan: I mean, this was... I mean, Pope Francis was the first non-European.
Ivan: He was very popular and he was in there for 13 years.
Ivan: So I have to believe that it will be another non-European.
Ivan: I think because the church in Europe has been on a... Catholic Church has been
Ivan: on a massive decline in Europe.
Ivan: So it's just, you know, like you mentioned, I mean, it's such a,
Ivan: so much more global, I mean, that in terms of, well, it's not,
Ivan: I don't know if it's that it's expanded as much in the rest of the world as
Ivan: it has decreased that much in Europe.
Ivan: That's basically what it is. Right.
Sam: So let me ask you a couple of trivia questions here.
Sam: Okay. Trivia. So on the official list of popes, which just to be clear,
Sam: starts with a few saints in ancient history,
Sam: what number was Francis without looking it up? What number pope?
Ivan: Yes. All right. Let me take a stab here. And just to be clear.
Sam: This list starts with St. Peter.
Sam: Yeah. Pope number one in the year 30 AD. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Ivan: See how close you can get.
Sam: You know, I see.
Ivan: I'm going to say around 200. 266.
Sam: Oh, not bad. I wasn't that far off.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: The 200th Pope, let me just look that up real quick.
Sam: 200th Pope was Urban V in the 1300s. Wow.
Sam: 1362 to 1370 was when he was Pope and he was French. I was guessing around 60.
Ivan: Popes every hundred years. So it wasn't that far off. Okay. 60, you mean.
Sam: 60 every thousand. I mean, every thousand. Yeah.
Ivan: Right. Exactly. Somewhere around there. But, but I, I, but I guess that it,
Ivan: uh, at the beginning, there probably had to be more because lifespans were shorter.
Sam: Probably and and there was lots of violence there were a lot of yeah there were
Sam: a lot of popes I think who got murdered I could be wrong about that you know just yeah anyway,
Sam: Okay, was Conclave your topic, or do you have one last thing you want to talk
Sam: about? No, I think we need to wrap up.
Ivan: Sam. It's one more subject. I think we need to wrap up. We are done.
Sam: Thank you, everybody, for joining us. You know the deal.
Sam: curmudgeons-corner.com for our archives and all the ways to contact us,
Sam: transcripts, everything you could possibly want, including a link to our Patreon.
Sam: on if you want to give us money at various levels
Sam: we will do various things that are exciting and
Sam: new just like the love boat and at
Sam: two dollars a month or more or if you just ask us we will invite you to a curmudgeon's
Sam: corner slack where yvonne and i and a bunch of listeners are chatting and having
Sam: fun throughout the week sharing links to news talking about things whatever
Sam: so yvonne how about one highlight from the slack well before i get to that i
Sam: went i checked something for example in the.
Ivan: Third century there were.
Sam: 30 popes.
Ivan: Okay okay in the 20th.
Sam: Century there.
Ivan: Were 10 so yes at the beginning they were we were going through a lot.
Sam: More popes,
Sam: you know yeah um okay yes so yeah uh let's.
Ivan: See all right we have what do we got here what do we got here we've got a lot
Ivan: of stuff hey sam did we just find aliens no we.
Sam: Did not so there There was a story that was making all the popular rounds of
Sam: the best evidence yet for life on another planet.
Sam: It basically claimed to detect chemicals in the atmosphere of a planet about
Sam: 120 light years away, if I remember correctly, that on Earth is only known to come from life,
Sam: particularly certain kinds of sea life actually created it.
Sam: and if you look at the popular news stories, they're all very breathless about this, et cetera.
Sam: I waited a couple days. I did share it with the Curmudgeon's Corner Slack as
Sam: soon as I saw it, but I waited a couple days for sort of science creators I
Sam: trust to give their take on it,
Sam: and there are basically lots and lots and lots of ifs.
Sam: I mean, even the first story said this requires confirmation,
Sam: But first of all, even with all the assumptions,
Sam: Even with all the assumptions they make, there's only like, there's a 99% chance
Sam: it really is this chemical, but they make a lot of assumptions.
Sam: They make assumptions about what kind of planet this is that it does not really
Sam: full agreement that it's actually that kind of planet in terms of like the general
Sam: composition of the planet, you know, water versus hydrogen atmosphere versus whatever.
Sam: But the thing is, I guess that it's probably not.
Ivan: We can't rule it out though yet.
Sam: We can't necessarily rule it out, but like the,
Sam: for this to actually be life, you have, there, there's several layers of unlikely
Sam: things that still have to happen.
Sam: Like, right. And so part of it is like, they're, first of all,
Sam: there's these whole bunch of assumptions.
Sam: Even if those assumptions are true, then there's a chance that it's not really
Sam: this chemical, you know, it could be something else. they could have misidentified the chemical.
Sam: And even if, you know, and even to have the, they had to make a whole bunch
Sam: of assumptions to even think it was the chemical in the first place.
Sam: So if any of those assumptions are wrong, then it's definitely not the chemical.
Sam: But even if those assumptions are right, there's a chance they're wrong about it being the chemical.
Sam: But, and then even if it is the chemical, just because we don't have evidence
Sam: of that chemical being uncreated on Earth without life doesn't mean it can't happen somewhere else.
Ivan: Doesn't mean it can't happen.
Sam: And in fact, we have found this chemical on comets.
Sam: We have found this chemical on interstellar clouds. So we know it can be created without life.
Sam: Well, or maybe it landed.
Ivan: There because of life and then the life wasn't there. Because the comets are
Ivan: maybe thousands and thousands of years old.
Sam: So anyway, this is a tantalizing, piece of new evidence, but it's nowhere close
Sam: to being actually, okay, yeah, this is life. Okay.
Ivan: Another sad news that I need to communicate that was on our Mudge's Corner Slack.
Ivan: I know everybody will be disappointed by this, but Fyre Festival 2 has been
Ivan: postponed. Sorry, guys.
Ivan: you know. I was going. I was going to go.
Sam: Yeah. It was.
Ivan: Oh, well. Yeah.
Ivan: It's canceled. It's, well, it says it's postponed. Postponed. Right.
Sam: Postponed. Yeah. Postponed until we actually do find the aliens.
Sam: Right. So we can invite them. Yes.
Ivan: I'm sure the aliens will be so thrilled with the Fyre Festival. J.D. Vance can go.
Sam: Yeah. J.D.
Ivan: Vance can be the host. also shared on their.
Sam: Curmudgeons corner slack was somebody's meme about the Dalai Lama now changed
Sam: his plans to not meet with JD. Not meet with JD.
Ivan: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think that is the prudent move. Yes. Okay.
Sam: We are done. We are out. If I were to Dalai Lama and I had agreed to a meeting with.
Ivan: With JD Vance, I don't, that I would be, Hey, how about we cancel this fucking thing? Okay.
Sam: There you go. I would be.
Ivan: Yeah. Okay. We're done.
Sam: Thank you, everybody, for listening. We'll be back next week at our normal time of week, I imagine.
Sam: So thank you, everybody, for joining us. Have a great week. Stay safe.
Sam: Have fun. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.
Sam: We'll see you next time. Goodbye. Bye.
Sam: Okay, Yvonne, good night. All right, well, let's.
Ivan: Get this thing uploaded.