WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:01.290 Here's my mug. 00:00:01.690 --> 00:00:03.870 Oh, is that the new one I sent you? 00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:04.690 Yep. 00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:07.730 Oh, no, it's the original. I think. 00:00:08.050 --> 00:00:13.150 Nope, nope, this is one. It says, I think. I thought my original one was dead. 00:00:13.510 --> 00:00:15.930 Does it say, what do you call it, specimen? 00:00:16.370 --> 00:00:18.870 Yeah, it says, I hate curmudgeon. 00:00:19.250 --> 00:00:23.110 Oh, excellent, excellent. That's the right one then. That's the one. 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:28.790 I thought it was, because my original one got broken somehow. I don't remember how. 00:00:28.790 --> 00:00:33.030 I thought you said your wife stole it. Either way, you have a new one now. 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:34.430 Either way. 00:00:35.190 --> 00:00:42.450 Okay. Well, let's see. There we go. Going to hit the button on that. 00:00:44.950 --> 00:00:50.530 And, yeah, let me check this real quick. Okay. 00:00:50.930 --> 00:00:53.210 Have you thought about things you might want to talk about? 00:00:53.570 --> 00:00:54.570 I did indeed. 00:00:54.970 --> 00:00:55.330 Okay. 00:00:55.330 --> 00:00:56.350 I wrote down a couple things. 00:00:56.710 --> 00:01:01.710 Excellent. then we can just get started you can tell me while we're recording oh okay. 00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:03.050 Sounds like a winner. 00:01:03.050 --> 00:01:07.770 I mean we are recording already but it's like before i hit the music okay but 00:01:07.770 --> 00:01:16.970 let's uh let's do the thing here we go all righty oh i messed that up there it comes there it comes, 00:01:35.810 --> 00:01:41.270 Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, June 14th, 2025. 00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:46.430 It's just after two UTC as we're starting to record. I am Sam Minter. 00:01:46.910 --> 00:01:51.450 Yvonne Bo is not here. This week, our schedules just didn't align. 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:57.750 I was only able to do it Friday, and he was only able to do it Thursday or Saturday. 00:01:58.090 --> 00:02:04.190 So I sent out my little request for co-host, and guess who answered this time? 00:02:04.430 --> 00:02:06.430 It's Ed. Hello, Ed. 00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:09.150 Hello there. It's the old man again. 00:02:10.390 --> 00:02:14.550 Welcome back, old man. Is that the right way I should address you from now on? 00:02:15.390 --> 00:02:20.610 Absolutely. Once again, this week came in second in my age group. 00:02:20.970 --> 00:02:23.130 There were only two of us over 80 doing it. 00:02:23.770 --> 00:02:28.850 Very nice. Very nice. What was it this time? Like a double marathon? 00:02:29.030 --> 00:02:34.230 That was a 5K run. No, it was a 5K run. And I'm not even really running anymore. 00:02:34.230 --> 00:02:39.650 I'm back to walking since, uh, in, in, uh, October, October last year, 00:02:39.790 --> 00:02:44.250 I had a tibial plateau, basically a stress fracture. 00:02:44.730 --> 00:02:47.150 And that is, well. 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:50.350 It wasn't that painful, but it pretty much ended my running days. 00:02:50.470 --> 00:02:54.210 Walking was still fine. I continued doing a fair amount of walking and, 00:02:54.410 --> 00:02:56.710 uh, I'm, I'm still walking, just not as much. 00:02:57.810 --> 00:03:01.230 Yeah. Understood. You're probably still walking more than I am, 00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:04.890 to be honest. You know, so can't say much. 00:03:05.250 --> 00:03:09.910 Anyway, as usual, when we have a guest, the guest determines most of the agenda. 00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:15.610 We still like to start out less newsy and get more newsy as the show progresses. 00:03:16.700 --> 00:03:21.380 And, you know, I, I might have a couple movies still, like I have determined, 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:25.860 I, I, I did, I did a calculation right before the show started that, 00:03:26.220 --> 00:03:29.320 well, this only covered like November to January. 00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:33.920 I haven't like looked at the more recent stuff yet, but I am finishing, 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:39.640 I'm either a movie or a TV show or a book about every five days. 00:03:40.220 --> 00:03:50.140 So so like doing one 5.1785 days to be a little bit more or 857 to be a little bit more precise, 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:56.100 but yeah that means if I do one movie a week on this show I'm never going to 00:03:56.100 --> 00:04:03.600 catch up so I need to like start doing two or something and yeah so anyway I 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:05.780 should do a movie or two but. 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:09.220 You could always go to three days a week on the podcast. 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:12.540 We could do that we we we could 00:04:12.540 --> 00:04:15.300 do a podcast every day you know it's just 00:04:15.300 --> 00:04:18.460 no it's it's too much damn work you know 00:04:18.460 --> 00:04:21.620 if if we were ever to do it more frequently it 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:27.840 would really have to be more a spontaneous we do the live stream we hit stop 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:32.480 and it's done just however it comes out of the box it's done i don't do any 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:38.400 prep i don't do any anything whatsoever i've i've cut back so much on how much 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:40.980 work I do, like editing these damn things. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:46.420 I, I'm very close to just taking it straight out and just exporting it and go. 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.160 I, the, the, and the things I do at this point are mostly automated as, 00:04:50.260 --> 00:04:55.800 as opposed to me doing stuff, but still it's, yeah, no, no, I, 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.160 I can't imagine doing this daily. 00:04:58.320 --> 00:05:02.040 I thought about for a while, once we started the tick talk, Like right now, 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.460 I just post like three clips of the show every week. 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:10.400 And, you know, but when we first set up the TikTok, I was like, 00:05:10.460 --> 00:05:15.980 you know what I'll do is and I gave Yvonne the login to I sort of said, 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:19.200 whatever I think of something I want to say that's news related, 00:05:19.440 --> 00:05:21.120 I'll just pop up my phone. 00:05:21.340 --> 00:05:23.760 I'll record two minutes and I'll publish it. 00:05:24.460 --> 00:05:29.620 And boom, we'll fill the curmudgeons corner TikTok channel with more stuff, 00:05:29.780 --> 00:05:31.460 not just the clips of the show. 00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:38.560 It'll be more engaging. It'll be more often, whatever. Because you need to succeed 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:40.980 in that platform, you have to be posting all the time. 00:05:41.460 --> 00:05:45.280 And I thought about that. And the first few weeks, I was like, 00:05:45.340 --> 00:05:48.380 okay, if I think of anything, I'll do that. If I think of anything, I'll do that. 00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:54.240 And I just never got inspired to do that. So I did. And so it's only clips of 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:57.960 the show because, and I know lots of people do it. 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:04.060 I follow people on TikTok who like post five or six times a day and the things 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:10.400 they post are just like a couple minutes long and they're clearly just pop open 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:12.840 their phone and talk into the phone for a couple minutes. 00:06:13.080 --> 00:06:16.980 You know, there are people on TikTok who do much more elaborate productions 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:19.600 than that and do all kinds of editing and fancy stuff. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:22.780 But there are definitely people out there succeeding 00:06:22.780 --> 00:06:26.280 on tiktok who are literally a thought 00:06:26.280 --> 00:06:30.820 pops into their head they open their phone they record for a couple minutes 00:06:30.820 --> 00:06:36.200 and they post it and done and they're doing fine you know but i just i just 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:40.800 never maybe i'll start thinking about it again maybe i'll get inspired at some 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:44.980 point but so far my head just doesn't work that way it's like it. 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:47.620 Sounds sort of sounds sort of like a verbal uh facebook. 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:49.100 Where you write down. 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:50.140 When you think of something yeah. 00:06:50.140 --> 00:06:53.140 It is essentially like that it's and and 00:06:53.140 --> 00:06:56.220 even even in the other social media i'm actually really bad 00:06:56.220 --> 00:06:59.020 at that like i'm i'm my like if you 00:06:59.020 --> 00:07:01.840 do look at you know i'm not on twitter anymore but i'm 00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:04.680 on blue sky i'm on mastodon and i am 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:10.580 posting regularly on those but my posts are mainly reposting 00:07:10.580 --> 00:07:14.780 stuff other people put out you know it's only 00:07:14.780 --> 00:07:17.760 a few times a week do i do something that's actually me 00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:20.720 typing my own thoughts and even then 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.980 it's usually in reaction to something i read like 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:30.140 and i'll make a comment about it and and i i just i don't know like this podcast 00:07:30.140 --> 00:07:36.200 is my main outlet for just like hey i'm gonna talk about whatever and i've just 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:41.020 never made the mental shift to like do that in other forums. 00:07:41.260 --> 00:07:45.920 Even when I, I mean, I still have applesmay.com is officially my blog, 00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:47.940 but I haven't posted anything there in years. 00:07:48.940 --> 00:07:53.020 I, and the thought was also there, Hey, whenever I have something to say, 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:55.100 I'll post something never really did. 00:07:55.520 --> 00:08:01.400 You know, the only things I posted are some things, things where I created some 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:06.500 sort of system and said, hey, every time this happens, I will post something about it. 00:08:06.820 --> 00:08:14.140 And it was very structured. I never did a free form off the top of my head, whatever. I don't know. 00:08:14.580 --> 00:08:17.340 Maybe I should try again. Maybe I shouldn't. I don't know. 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:22.500 So where do you want to start today? You said you had thought about things you 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:23.520 wanted to talk about today. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.800 What is the lightest, least newsy thing on your list? We can start there. 00:08:29.260 --> 00:08:33.700 The least newsy thing? I was just going to say that my siblings, 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:38.800 my brother, my sister, and I are going to be coast-to-coast participants in 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:41.380 the No Kings demonstrations. 00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:42.580 Okay, yeah. 00:08:42.580 --> 00:08:46.180 My sister lives in Berkeley, and she's going to be in Oakland tomorrow for it. 00:08:46.380 --> 00:08:50.560 My brother's in Iowa City, and I'm going to be going—actually, 00:08:50.560 --> 00:08:56.600 I'm going to go to No Kings in the morning near here in Labbertville, I think it is. 00:08:57.020 --> 00:09:02.020 And then in the afternoon, we're going to—Doylestown is having its own anti-Trump 00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:03.980 thing, so I'm going to go there, too. 00:09:04.420 --> 00:09:09.500 Now, I don't get how you figured out that the anti-Trump protests aren't newsy, 00:09:09.560 --> 00:09:12.520 but let's go with it anyway. am i. 00:09:12.520 --> 00:09:13.240 Going to them. 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:19.560 But uh yeah no and for for anybody who doesn't know i mean hell this this podcast 00:09:19.560 --> 00:09:25.520 will probably go out after all of these are over almost not even probably almost certainly, 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.960 we'll go out and just just watch i say that and 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.760 then like i get inspired and put it out but 00:09:31.760 --> 00:09:35.400 like no i was gonna say it's nokings.org and 00:09:35.400 --> 00:09:38.040 they are probably gonna have more events after this weekend so you 00:09:38.040 --> 00:09:41.240 can still go and check them out but it's they they 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:47.300 have organized these protests all over the country i in fact i think there are 00:09:47.300 --> 00:09:56.560 some in other countries as well um but but mostly u.s protests and yeah i'm 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:00.760 just looking yeah there are a few in europe it looks like a few elsewhere. 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:10.080 So there are a handful in other places, but by far, by far, it is a U.S.-centric 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:15.400 event because it is, you know, the subject line, oh, did I give the URL? 00:10:15.660 --> 00:10:20.300 No, no kings.org, no kings.org. You can go there and find out more, 00:10:20.660 --> 00:10:24.780 find out if there's one near you, whether it's the weekend that we're talking 00:10:24.780 --> 00:10:26.580 about or some later events. 00:10:26.580 --> 00:10:35.180 But they were making a big push for events on June 14th, which is now, essentially. 00:10:35.620 --> 00:10:39.380 Yeah, I said it's June 14th to UTC. U.S. time, it's tomorrow, 00:10:40.060 --> 00:10:43.180 Saturday, June 14th, and all over the country. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:46.840 And I've been thinking I want to go, too. 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:52.820 Like, I've got some things going on earlier on Saturday. But I think probably 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.400 I'll be done with those things in time to do one of these. 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:05.500 There are several near me as well. Like, I'm just south of Everett, Washington. 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:08.040 Let me see. I will... 00:11:08.890 --> 00:11:14.610 Look at what's closest to me. There's one in Everett, Washington. 00:11:15.030 --> 00:11:18.250 There's one in Marysville. There's one in Monroe. 00:11:18.890 --> 00:11:21.870 There's one in Edmonds. They're all over the place. And of course, 00:11:21.870 --> 00:11:29.070 there's one in Seattle, and there are a bunch more all across the area and all over the country. 00:11:29.070 --> 00:11:32.830 And they're basically there's a 00:11:32.830 --> 00:11:36.030 whole bunch of non-profits and advocacy 00:11:36.030 --> 00:11:38.830 groups who have come together to 00:11:38.830 --> 00:11:41.850 organize these so like each individual one is 00:11:41.850 --> 00:11:44.890 organized by somebody somebody different 00:11:44.890 --> 00:11:50.850 so for instance the one in everett here is by snohomish county indivisible one 00:11:50.850 --> 00:11:58.230 in in uh marysville is by veterans say no kings as i look at these various ones 00:11:58.230 --> 00:12:01.970 the one in Monroe is by something called No Kings Monroe. 00:12:02.550 --> 00:12:06.190 So there are all kinds of different things by all kinds of different people 00:12:06.190 --> 00:12:09.750 under this umbrella. And it's a whole bunch of protests. 00:12:09.910 --> 00:12:14.810 And I think that they have probably, they've been organizing these for a while, 00:12:14.970 --> 00:12:20.450 but I'm gathering there's probably more momentum for because of one, 00:12:20.830 --> 00:12:24.750 what's happening in Los Angeles over the last week, And two, 00:12:25.030 --> 00:12:27.730 Donald Trump's little military march in D.C. as well. 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:32.790 You know, I think these things both inspire sort of counter-protests. 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:35.130 It's little military march? 00:12:35.410 --> 00:12:38.550 Yes, little, little military march. 00:12:39.550 --> 00:12:46.650 And we'll see how they go. I mean, these are all very much oriented towards, 00:12:47.070 --> 00:12:53.890 these are normie demonstrations. These are intended to be nonviolent, peaceful. 00:12:54.290 --> 00:12:58.570 They are emphasizing that over and over and over again, whereas, 00:12:58.590 --> 00:13:05.230 you know, they're always troublemakers in any group, any large group. 00:13:05.230 --> 00:13:10.630 But these are the kinds of things that, you know, people will be bringing their kids to, their pets, 00:13:11.110 --> 00:13:17.590 you know, this is people of all ages and, you know, are very, 00:13:17.890 --> 00:13:24.310 you know, will be, I can almost guarantee these are going to be very self-policing 00:13:24.310 --> 00:13:27.510 in that if people start trying to make trouble, 00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:33.930 you know, the people at the demonstration itself will take care of those people. 00:13:33.930 --> 00:13:37.870 And keep it from getting out of control, but, you know, frankly, 00:13:38.070 --> 00:13:43.090 even the ones in LA and stuff that they've been, for the most part, 00:13:43.390 --> 00:13:47.170 they didn't start getting out of control until, 00:13:47.930 --> 00:13:53.390 the police started trying to harass the demonstrators, but even then, 00:13:53.470 --> 00:13:55.190 I mean, they're, they're. 00:13:56.170 --> 00:14:00.090 And there are some, like I said, there are troublemakers in every crowd. 00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:02.730 I mean, yes, somebody did burn a Waymo. 00:14:03.330 --> 00:14:08.130 You know, there is graffiti all over the place. People have been doing that kind of stuff. 00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:14.930 It's not helpful. And I'm hopeful that these no kings marches will avoid all that nonsense. 00:14:15.290 --> 00:14:18.530 Well, they're making it pretty clear in their instruction pages. 00:14:19.030 --> 00:14:22.850 It says, this is not a rally. You want to go to a rally, go somewhere else. 00:14:23.050 --> 00:14:26.690 This is a, I don't know what they're calling an event. Right. 00:14:27.390 --> 00:14:32.490 No protest signs. None of that. Just the placard they're going to give us to put up over our head. 00:14:32.990 --> 00:14:39.630 Yeah. The one in Everett here is labeled that it has a rally, then sign waving. 00:14:41.230 --> 00:14:45.770 So they're going to have both. Yeah. And I think different ones are like, 00:14:45.810 --> 00:14:47.130 I'm just clicking around. 00:14:47.910 --> 00:14:51.490 Some of them have more information about exactly what they have planned. 00:14:51.830 --> 00:14:57.210 Some of them don't. And some of them, some of them have locations that are public 00:14:57.210 --> 00:15:02.610 that others, you only get the address if you RSVP, you know, 00:15:02.730 --> 00:15:04.830 so all kinds of stuff like that. 00:15:04.970 --> 00:15:09.630 So what, what are you, I mean, you know, it'd be nice if like this event had 00:15:09.630 --> 00:15:13.210 already happened and we could talk about how it went, but what, 00:15:13.310 --> 00:15:16.590 what, what are your intentions on going and what do you expect? 00:15:16.610 --> 00:15:20.270 And what, why is it important for you to go? 00:15:21.510 --> 00:15:25.190 Well, I think it sounds like it's going to be just sort of a, 00:15:25.310 --> 00:15:30.190 we're here and we don't believe in kings and, as we say, an event, 00:15:30.330 --> 00:15:34.010 not really a rally or a protest as such. 00:15:34.790 --> 00:15:38.910 My concern, part of the reason why I'm doing this and why I'm going to go to 00:15:38.910 --> 00:15:46.070 the actual rally tomorrow evening is that I see our nation in severe distress 00:15:46.070 --> 00:15:54.210 at this point with a guy who very clearly talks like a dictator and is carrying out dictator actions. 00:15:55.790 --> 00:15:59.570 We'll talk about it later, I'm sure, too. I think we're under a real threat. 00:15:59.570 --> 00:16:06.510 I think we're as close to loss of our republic, at least a democracy republic, 00:16:06.930 --> 00:16:08.430 as we've been since the Civil War. 00:16:10.210 --> 00:16:16.610 Yes. I mean, one of the things, you know, as we dive directly into real issues, 00:16:17.150 --> 00:16:23.510 you know, people talk about, like, what, you know, how will you know? 00:16:23.730 --> 00:16:25.710 When are we really in a crisis? 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:29.870 You know, do we have a constitutional crisis right now? do we not? 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:34.450 Are we still a democracy? Are we not? And the thing is, 00:16:35.780 --> 00:16:41.300 I mean, occasionally these things happen with a really abrupt revolution and 00:16:41.300 --> 00:16:43.700 there's a clear day that it happened. 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:51.500 But much more often, there's a gradual erosion and there is no clear single 00:16:51.500 --> 00:16:54.840 day where everything is different than the day before. 00:16:55.520 --> 00:17:02.260 And instead, it's just slowly over time, things are different than they were before. 00:17:02.260 --> 00:17:09.120 And even in your out-and-out, direct, unabashed dictatorships, 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:12.500 life goes on for most people. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:17.600 People get up in the morning, they go to work, they go home. 00:17:18.260 --> 00:17:23.780 There are certain people that are harassed by whoever's in charge, 00:17:23.780 --> 00:17:29.200 certain people that are taken away to prison and killed and everything else when it gets really bad. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:36.740 But for the most part, you know, 99% of the population continues to go about their regular day. 00:17:37.280 --> 00:17:40.900 And, you know, they sort of slowly realize things change. 00:17:41.080 --> 00:17:45.160 I mean, people talk about the myth of the frog in the boiling pot and all, 00:17:45.300 --> 00:17:46.300 which isn't really true. 00:17:46.420 --> 00:17:54.160 The frog does generally jump out before they are cooked. But yeah, it's a gradual thing. 00:17:54.320 --> 00:18:01.560 And I'd say, look, right now, if you look at the stuff that's already happening every day right now, 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:09.000 in terms of people argue, has Donald Trump directly violated a court order that 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.740 has already been validated by the Supreme Court? 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:16.980 But already there well first you can argue that yes he actually has the Supreme 00:18:16.980 --> 00:18:21.860 Court gave an order to get that guy back from El Salvador and he is back now 00:18:21.860 --> 00:18:24.280 but it took them like a month and a half to do it. 00:18:25.220 --> 00:18:30.440 But even before then I mean you're already softening the standards like before 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:34.100 it would be like you're violating a court order from any court you don't have to, 00:18:34.850 --> 00:18:38.250 appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court. I mean, you can appeal it to the 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:41.830 Supreme Court, but in the meantime, you still need to obey it. Well, they didn't. 00:18:42.370 --> 00:18:50.230 And so is that already a crisis? We've got the president giving a speech in 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:55.510 front of military folks who were pre-screened for whether they were his supporters 00:18:55.510 --> 00:18:58.830 and instructed to cheer at his political statements. 00:18:59.370 --> 00:19:05.110 That's a dramatic change from how presidents have done events in front of the military before. 00:19:05.550 --> 00:19:09.410 That's a huge change from what the military has ever done. 00:19:10.190 --> 00:19:14.290 I was in there for 27 years, and it was made very clear to us, 00:19:14.370 --> 00:19:20.330 we did not, as soldiers in uniform, ever express a political opinion. 00:19:21.130 --> 00:19:24.550 Afterwards, and you're sitting in your shorts around the bar at night, 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:28.650 you can talk all the politics you want, But you don't say, I'm Colonel Haynes, 00:19:28.690 --> 00:19:29.990 and here's what you should believe. 00:19:30.350 --> 00:19:32.950 That was not done, and it shouldn't be done. 00:19:33.730 --> 00:19:38.130 Yeah, and at this latest, I forget exactly what event it was, 00:19:38.310 --> 00:19:42.630 but Trump was in front of a military audience, and they made sure the audience 00:19:42.630 --> 00:19:48.470 was screened so that anybody who had any qualms about Donald Trump would not be in the audience. 00:19:48.930 --> 00:19:52.190 They also screened it for, he said he didn't want any fat people. 00:19:52.890 --> 00:19:54.910 Like, so, so they screened at least. 00:19:55.030 --> 00:19:57.690 At least someone decided there shouldn't be any fat people. 00:19:58.010 --> 00:20:03.030 Yes. Well, yeah. I mean, this is the kind of thing that we know Donald Trump 00:20:03.030 --> 00:20:06.650 is in the past, like complained because at a veterans parade, 00:20:06.650 --> 00:20:10.610 they included people who had lost limbs while they were in the military. 00:20:10.890 --> 00:20:14.670 And he said, I don't want, nobody wants to see that. I don't want to ever have 00:20:14.670 --> 00:20:18.150 those people, you know, in my presence again, basically. 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:22.790 You know, so I have no doubt that it came from the top. 00:20:22.890 --> 00:20:27.850 Even if it was somebody anticipating what he would want, it clearly is what he would want. 00:20:28.750 --> 00:20:32.450 And, you know, and basically making sure that when he, like, 00:20:32.570 --> 00:20:35.850 for instance, said bad things about Governor Newsom in California, 00:20:35.850 --> 00:20:40.270 that everybody cheered or booed when they mentioned his name or cheered when 00:20:40.270 --> 00:20:42.630 he said that he'd go against him or whatever. 00:20:42.630 --> 00:20:50.650 And then, you know, the calling out of the military for the situation in California and, you know, 00:20:50.870 --> 00:20:55.470 arresting the congresswoman in New Jersey for that incident a few weeks back 00:20:55.470 --> 00:21:02.070 and now indicting her or, you know, the harassment of the senator in California this week. 00:21:02.070 --> 00:21:10.610 All of these are things that are direct, you know, contraventions of what would 00:21:10.610 --> 00:21:14.310 have been normal in any other presidency before this. 00:21:14.430 --> 00:21:17.630 It's even stuff that Donald Trump didn't do in his first term. 00:21:18.950 --> 00:21:21.030 His staff prevented it. 00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:22.870 His staff prevented it. 00:21:23.110 --> 00:21:25.250 But he's got a different staff this time. 00:21:25.430 --> 00:21:30.930 Well, he's specifically chosen people who won't say no to these kinds of things. 00:21:31.090 --> 00:21:31.270 Yeah. 00:21:31.270 --> 00:21:38.490 And hell, for that matter, all the Dodge stuff, you know, so when you talk about, you know, 00:21:39.070 --> 00:21:42.250 are we no longer a democracy or whatever? 00:21:42.650 --> 00:21:46.530 There is not that one mark, but they're all of these, 00:21:46.810 --> 00:21:54.030 you know, basically American democracy was built on the norms around respecting 00:21:54.030 --> 00:21:58.190 the institutions that were defining the country, 00:21:58.510 --> 00:22:02.070 both the ones that were explicit in the constitution and ones that had developed 00:22:02.070 --> 00:22:05.950 over time and enforcing the norms of certain behavior, like, 00:22:06.530 --> 00:22:11.210 you know, Hey, if you lose an election, you gracefully say, oh, 00:22:11.330 --> 00:22:13.250 well, I lost. I'll try again next time. 00:22:14.190 --> 00:22:19.270 Norms around what kind of debate is appropriate and what kind is not, 00:22:19.490 --> 00:22:22.830 and norms around lying is bad. 00:22:22.990 --> 00:22:29.690 You can argue, but if you outright say something false, you will have repercussions for it. 00:22:29.870 --> 00:22:33.910 All of those norms are out the window and have been for a while. 00:22:33.910 --> 00:22:40.830 Well, the concept of what's called liberal democracy, which is what we have 00:22:40.830 --> 00:22:44.410 had is a democracy with all people entitled, 00:22:45.090 --> 00:22:52.210 depends upon people cooperating and working together and not going out and encouraging 00:22:52.210 --> 00:22:54.650 a riot because they lost an election. 00:22:54.650 --> 00:22:59.950 It's so much of it depends upon the guy who lost the election coming forward 00:22:59.950 --> 00:23:03.390 and shaking hands and standing up with a new guy and saying, 00:23:03.390 --> 00:23:05.730 this is our president and I salute him. 00:23:07.590 --> 00:23:14.390 Once that norm starts breaking down, you get anarchy and out of anarchy very 00:23:14.390 --> 00:23:18.650 quickly comes oligarchy, which is what Trump really wants. 00:23:18.850 --> 00:23:22.910 And it becomes a very difficult spiral, too, because absolutely. 00:23:22.910 --> 00:23:26.150 Because if the other side... 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:34.100 Continues to try to play by the old rules, they will lose very often. 00:23:34.100 --> 00:23:36.520 Not always, not guaranteed, but yeah. 00:23:36.760 --> 00:23:40.340 On the other hand, as I've said multiple times over the years, 00:23:40.540 --> 00:23:46.840 if we adopt the policies and actions of our enemy, how are we going to explain 00:23:46.840 --> 00:23:48.440 to our kids who the enemy is? 00:23:48.760 --> 00:23:54.480 Exactly. Well, that's why I said it easily leads to a spiral because the other 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:59.360 side decides that they need to adopt the same tactics and then they just make it worse. 00:24:00.020 --> 00:24:04.600 And it spirals and spirals until something does break. 00:24:05.040 --> 00:24:08.800 And, you know, I know, you know, there's some people who are itching for, 00:24:08.800 --> 00:24:16.980 you know, revolution at any time, but an actual revolution tends to be really bad for a long time. 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:22.420 So it's just, it's just a very hard situation to pull out of. 00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:26.940 I mean, there are some countries that have pulled out of these things without 00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:30.080 bloodshed, but it usually takes a while. 00:24:31.140 --> 00:24:36.380 It's much harder to build these institutions and build these norms in the first 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:37.960 place than it is to destroy them. 00:24:38.280 --> 00:24:41.340 So once you've destroyed them, 00:24:41.580 --> 00:24:49.040 it's just really hard to get them back because the whole mindset of the country 00:24:49.040 --> 00:24:53.980 changes in terms of what people expect is the normal way to operate, 00:24:54.260 --> 00:24:57.740 what people expect is the only way to get things done. 00:24:57.740 --> 00:25:04.800 If nobody believes that they can get what they want through the process and 00:25:04.800 --> 00:25:07.360 no one follows or respects it anymore, 00:25:07.820 --> 00:25:18.540 then like you said, you have a situation of anarchy, which tends to get worse 00:25:18.540 --> 00:25:21.240 before it gets better on all kinds of metrics. 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:26.180 So I don't know you know I think we're we've, 00:25:26.980 --> 00:25:34.540 we've gone a long way down that direction. Do I feel it's not recoverable at this point? No, no. 00:25:34.840 --> 00:25:41.520 I have faith and I have confidence that this country will eventually pull out 00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:50.900 of the disaster it chose in 2016 and chose again in 2024 on an even worse scenario. 00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:57.700 But, you know, So I, hell, even after 2016, I was saying right away, 00:25:57.940 --> 00:26:03.240 even if Trump only lasts one term, it'll take decades to recover from the damage he's done. 00:26:04.060 --> 00:26:08.480 Giving him a second run, it's, it's going to be a long time. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:10.700 It's going to be a long time. 00:26:12.600 --> 00:26:21.360 Even if Donald Trump is out of office in three and a half years and we get a 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:24.300 string of quote-unquote good presidents, 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:28.220 good congresses after that, it's still going to take a long, 00:26:28.300 --> 00:26:32.820 long, long, long time to undo the damage of these eight years. 00:26:33.490 --> 00:26:38.470 And in the meantime, things like the climate change are going to continue coming 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:40.170 forward to make it even more difficult. 00:26:40.570 --> 00:26:40.910 Yeah. 00:26:40.990 --> 00:26:45.210 I think our economy is going to be screwed badly by the time Trump's done with it. 00:26:45.370 --> 00:26:51.510 Well, this is where, like, does the rest of the world step up if we're not, you know? 00:26:51.810 --> 00:26:57.170 And that leads to further American decline for us not taking the lead in all 00:26:57.170 --> 00:27:02.570 kinds of things like this. But, you know, one hopes that, you know, 00:27:02.750 --> 00:27:05.190 the rest of the world can pick up the slack. 00:27:05.310 --> 00:27:09.430 But, you know, it's just as likely that, you know, 00:27:09.570 --> 00:27:14.430 Trump and Putin and these folks get what they want in terms of a multipolar 00:27:14.430 --> 00:27:20.010 world with spheres of influence that are competing against each other and each 00:27:20.010 --> 00:27:24.830 doing their own thing that is not particularly helpful to the world as a whole. 00:27:24.830 --> 00:27:30.850 Um you mean like h.g wells positive all. 00:27:30.850 --> 00:27:35.570 Kinds of people did you know in 1984 also had that structure. 00:27:35.570 --> 00:27:37.370 That's what i mean you know oh. 00:27:37.370 --> 00:27:39.310 That's uh george orwell not. 00:27:39.310 --> 00:27:45.310 Oh geez you're right i'm i'm thinking the wrong guy but uh excuse my age yeah 00:27:45.310 --> 00:27:49.150 orwell yeah um but yeah triumph three countries. 00:27:50.010 --> 00:27:55.610 Yeah, well, and honestly, this was how the world was generally perceived prior 00:27:55.610 --> 00:27:57.250 to the 20th century anyway. 00:27:57.650 --> 00:28:02.110 I mean, you know, the Portuguese and Spanish literally divided the world in 00:28:02.110 --> 00:28:05.590 half and said, you've got this side of the line, you've got that side of the line. 00:28:05.770 --> 00:28:09.070 And then the English took a huge chunk of it as well. 00:28:09.250 --> 00:28:15.350 And it was all just sort of like the great powers competing in what parts of 00:28:15.350 --> 00:28:17.410 the world do they quote unquote own. 00:28:18.150 --> 00:28:20.950 And Trump's made it clear that like that's the kind 00:28:20.950 --> 00:28:23.690 of world he would like to see again you know 00:28:23.690 --> 00:28:27.370 people asked make America great again when are you talking about and there was 00:28:27.370 --> 00:28:32.750 a lot of you know hey he's talking about the 1950s he himself has now made it 00:28:32.750 --> 00:28:38.470 very clear that the time he thinks wistfully of and thinks America should go 00:28:38.470 --> 00:28:42.850 back to is the 1890s specifically yes so yep. 00:28:43.770 --> 00:28:46.990 Absolutely the the error that led up to the great depression. 00:28:46.990 --> 00:28:51.290 Yeah robber barons and uh well. 00:28:51.290 --> 00:28:55.050 A huge huge concentration of wealth and a very small number of people. 00:28:55.050 --> 00:28:57.870 Yes and and the spheres 00:28:57.870 --> 00:29:01.510 of influence we were just talking about across the world you know not quite 00:29:01.510 --> 00:29:06.750 the close to the height of colonialism not quite i think i think it peaked into 00:29:06.750 --> 00:29:16.210 early 1900s but yeah i mean anyway yes so so you're going anyway that's what that's. 00:29:16.210 --> 00:29:17.150 Why i'm going to be there tomorrow. 00:29:17.150 --> 00:29:21.890 That's why you're going to be there tomorrow and i hope we get some coverage 00:29:21.890 --> 00:29:26.730 of these things one of the things i've noticed and people have pointed this 00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:30.290 out before is of course the peaceful protests. 00:29:31.130 --> 00:29:36.130 Don't get a lot of attention. You know, it's the ones that do turn violent, 00:29:36.330 --> 00:29:40.370 that people get all kinds of news coverage and get on TV. 00:29:40.690 --> 00:29:48.570 Like, this is not the first day of protest that's been called since Trump has been back in office. 00:29:48.790 --> 00:29:55.530 And several of them have actually had quite large attendance in cities all over 00:29:55.530 --> 00:29:59.850 the country, just like this one is expected to, where not only do you have big 00:29:59.850 --> 00:30:01.150 crowds in the big cities, 00:30:01.390 --> 00:30:05.090 but you have decent-sized crowds in smaller cities all across the country. 00:30:05.530 --> 00:30:09.230 And this has happened on a number of occasions. And there have been other places 00:30:09.230 --> 00:30:14.990 that have been having protests of one sort or another on a near-weekly basis 00:30:14.990 --> 00:30:17.230 all the way straight through. 00:30:17.230 --> 00:30:22.030 But they tend not to get attention unless they are disruptive, 00:30:22.330 --> 00:30:23.710 unless they are violent. 00:30:23.890 --> 00:30:27.250 You don't really see it. I mean, just on a smaller scale, 00:30:27.570 --> 00:30:31.870 you know, I mentioned last week, you know, how I'm annoyed by my commute back 00:30:31.870 --> 00:30:36.290 and forth, but almost every single day on that commute back and forth where 00:30:36.290 --> 00:30:40.690 I'm going on I-5 from Seattle to Everett, Washington, 00:30:41.310 --> 00:30:47.750 there are people on the bridges over the highway holding up signs of one sort 00:30:47.750 --> 00:30:52.850 or another and, you know, waving at the cars below and trying to get attention. 00:30:52.850 --> 00:30:55.170 Is that ever on the news? No. 00:30:55.870 --> 00:31:00.030 I mean, hell, driving under them, I barely notice them these days. 00:31:00.030 --> 00:31:01.490 I'm like, oh, there's some signs again. 00:31:02.910 --> 00:31:07.530 But because they become part of the landscape and they're not going to make 00:31:07.530 --> 00:31:11.150 the news because they're not disrupting anything. 00:31:11.850 --> 00:31:16.970 I think they still accomplish something because people see them. 00:31:17.090 --> 00:31:19.330 They do get some news commentary. 00:31:19.690 --> 00:31:25.010 Periodically, people get interviewed from it. Yeah. And and the more people 00:31:25.010 --> 00:31:30.930 that participate, the more people see it, whether or not the news reports it. It's almost. 00:31:31.110 --> 00:31:36.630 And that's what's good about like things like No Kings, which are nationwide. 00:31:37.450 --> 00:31:41.450 Like, you know, it used to be the model for these was we are going to have a 00:31:41.450 --> 00:31:46.610 big event in Washington, D.C. And we want like hundreds of thousands, 00:31:46.890 --> 00:31:49.310 millions of people to show up and march on the mall. 00:31:49.530 --> 00:31:55.070 Or we're going to have a big event in CityX, you know, if it's something else. 00:31:55.270 --> 00:31:59.070 And the problem is it's harder to get people there. 00:31:59.250 --> 00:32:03.470 And, you know, most people across the country aren't going to see that directly. 00:32:03.650 --> 00:32:05.490 Maybe it will make a big splash. 00:32:06.550 --> 00:32:11.550 But this model that has been developing over the last few years, 00:32:11.570 --> 00:32:15.590 I mean, And people could always do it, but I think technology is enabling it 00:32:15.590 --> 00:32:21.390 more and more, I think is useful because people all over see it. 00:32:21.550 --> 00:32:27.990 And like you said, it serves multiple purposes, even if it doesn't get wall-to-wall 00:32:27.990 --> 00:32:30.170 coverage in the media all day long or whatever. 00:32:31.210 --> 00:32:37.090 One is if you actually go to one of these things, you realize, 00:32:37.610 --> 00:32:45.310 oh, I'm not alone. I am part of this bigger community that believes the same way I believe. 00:32:45.690 --> 00:32:50.150 And I'm going to meet people. I'm going to network with people. 00:32:50.710 --> 00:32:52.330 I'm hell. I'm even. 00:32:53.380 --> 00:32:57.860 This part's annoying to me, but like if I RSVP, I sign up with some mailing 00:32:57.860 --> 00:32:59.340 list, they're going to send me crap. 00:33:00.080 --> 00:33:08.020 And, you know, and maybe some of these people will be inspired to do other things 00:33:08.020 --> 00:33:10.640 and get involved more deeply. 00:33:11.380 --> 00:33:17.060 You know, my wife, who's now a state rep, didn't start with events like this, 00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:22.720 but she started being heavily involved in online communities after the 2016 election. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:27.540 And gradually became more and more involved, became involved in in-person things 00:33:27.540 --> 00:33:31.820 as well, helped or started helping to organize things, et cetera. 00:33:32.140 --> 00:33:37.680 She organized a couple of like rally events, parade, things like this, 00:33:37.800 --> 00:33:41.320 and was involved in person in a variety of others. 00:33:41.880 --> 00:33:46.640 And, you know, she ended up a state rep, you know, just because she got more and more involved. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:52.700 And, you know, out of every one of these that occurs, you may not get, 00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:57.420 you know, hundreds of thousands of people who get more involved like that, but you'll get a few. 00:33:58.140 --> 00:34:03.780 And it helps get the next generation of activists and politicians energized. 00:34:03.780 --> 00:34:09.160 And even if that's not, you know, any particular person, like I said, 00:34:09.340 --> 00:34:12.600 it helps build that awareness. 00:34:12.820 --> 00:34:20.280 And I think especially in redder areas, having the blue-leaning people sort 00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:24.360 of get together and know they're not alone is helpful. 00:34:24.660 --> 00:34:28.920 But it's helpful everywhere. And like, you know, I mentioned the people waving 00:34:28.920 --> 00:34:30.980 the signs over the highway. 00:34:31.540 --> 00:34:35.340 Yeah. Even if I don't honk back, even if I'm just driving back and forth, 00:34:35.540 --> 00:34:40.200 you know, there, there are thousands and thousands of people who just drove 00:34:40.200 --> 00:34:41.680 under those signs and saw them. 00:34:44.020 --> 00:34:47.660 And maybe you don't convince anybody. 00:34:48.020 --> 00:34:51.220 Maybe you convince one or two people. I don't know. Maybe you get them thinking 00:34:51.220 --> 00:34:57.740 in a way they weren't thinking before, but you show a bunch of people that, oh, yeah, 00:34:58.580 --> 00:35:03.480 there actually are a bunch of people out there who care a lot about this, 00:35:03.500 --> 00:35:05.780 and it's not a lost cause. 00:35:06.740 --> 00:35:12.080 There's stuff we can do. So even if a lot of the stuff is performative right 00:35:12.080 --> 00:35:16.440 now, I mean, let's be clear. Donald Trump won. 00:35:16.900 --> 00:35:19.960 The Republicans took the Senate. The Republicans took the House. 00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:26.540 The Republicans have been leading the Supreme Court for a number of years now. 00:35:26.820 --> 00:35:32.440 There is not a lot that can be directly done in policy terms at the national level. 00:35:32.740 --> 00:35:35.400 If you're in a blue state or a purple state, maybe. 00:35:36.080 --> 00:35:44.360 But so a lot of this is, you know, solidarity and organizing and building up 00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:47.080 for the next battle. Now that, you know. 00:35:47.690 --> 00:35:53.670 And it does make a difference. We've talked about the taco thing with Trump, 00:35:53.970 --> 00:35:55.710 you know, Trump always chickens out. 00:35:56.150 --> 00:36:02.290 And even with this immigration stuff, there were reports in the last 48 hours 00:36:02.290 --> 00:36:09.070 that he's reconsidering how aggressive ICE is being because people in the agricultural 00:36:09.070 --> 00:36:10.890 industry have been calling him, 00:36:11.010 --> 00:36:15.090 talking about how badly it's affecting them and how it's going to affect, 00:36:15.150 --> 00:36:17.470 you know, this summer's crops. 00:36:18.110 --> 00:36:23.530 And such, and that it will hit food prices and things like this. 00:36:23.990 --> 00:36:29.090 Landscapers, roofers, all of these industries are, and that's, 00:36:29.170 --> 00:36:31.690 you know, that's part of the foundation. 00:36:32.190 --> 00:36:34.410 You know, it's hard to run a factory without a roof. 00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:38.010 Yeah. And so Donald Trump is saying, ah, change is coming. 00:36:38.450 --> 00:36:41.810 We might change some of this stuff because he's 00:36:41.810 --> 00:36:45.090 discovering that going full on out Stephen Miller 00:36:45.090 --> 00:36:47.930 may be losing him some losing him 00:36:47.930 --> 00:36:51.010 support and what we found you know 00:36:51.010 --> 00:36:53.830 immigration and tariffs both seem to be one 00:36:53.830 --> 00:37:00.650 of the areas that he actually does have some deeply held opinions as opposed 00:37:00.650 --> 00:37:07.390 to just doing whatever it takes to give him more power and more money but even 00:37:07.390 --> 00:37:11.710 there he's proving to be somewhat practical where, you know, 00:37:11.890 --> 00:37:15.930 if it's, if it looks like it's backfiring, he backs off. 00:37:16.450 --> 00:37:22.050 And so I don't know there, there've been a number of cases where the, you know, 00:37:22.500 --> 00:37:30.960 You know, really loud opposition has led to dropping polls, which in turn has 00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:32.520 led to Trump backing off. 00:37:32.860 --> 00:37:38.680 And so there you go. And not every time. And, you know, I fully expect in some 00:37:38.680 --> 00:37:40.600 cases it'll make him dig in further. 00:37:40.600 --> 00:37:43.680 But the trouble is is that even 00:37:43.680 --> 00:37:46.860 if he if he backs down he's got guys like 00:37:46.860 --> 00:37:55.060 head seth and steven miller and uh what's his name banner bannon bannon bannon 00:37:55.060 --> 00:37:59.740 steven bannon these people are they don't back down because they were you know 00:37:59.740 --> 00:38:06.800 miller doesn't give a damn i miller wants to see people with brown skin killed well just like. 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:11.360 We just saw with elon though like in the end And Trump is president. 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:17.740 If any of these, if Trump starts believing that any one of these people are 00:38:17.740 --> 00:38:20.640 actually hurting him rather than helping him. 00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:21.840 He may get rid of them. 00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:28.120 He may get rid of them. He has no hesitancy to throw people overboard when they 00:38:28.120 --> 00:38:29.560 are no longer useful to him. 00:38:29.800 --> 00:38:32.860 Or when he senses any level of disloyalty. 00:38:33.460 --> 00:38:37.860 Yep. Nope. We'll see. We've got three and a half years, probably. 00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:45.580 Okay. uh anything else on uh on no kings i. 00:38:45.580 --> 00:38:47.540 Think we've covered most of the topics i had. 00:38:49.560 --> 00:38:53.220 Let's hear about we're done thank you very much everybody i gotta hear about. 00:38:53.220 --> 00:38:53.980 A movie first. 00:38:53.980 --> 00:38:58.800 Okay well let's take a break and then uh maybe the next segment can be movies 00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:05.060 you can you can do some movies too um and or tv shows or books or whatever you 00:39:05.060 --> 00:39:09.060 want the next segment will be media. 00:39:09.620 --> 00:39:15.880 So time for time for a break. And as usual, I have to find the right break to run. 00:39:16.040 --> 00:39:18.220 This time, it will be this one. 00:39:19.040 --> 00:39:21.600 Okie dokie. Here it comes. 00:39:27.460 --> 00:39:30.860 It was just my internet being stupid. 00:39:31.180 --> 00:39:36.300 My internet being stupid is a new song we will make. 00:39:36.300 --> 00:40:08.200 Do you believe Come on, come on, come on. 00:40:09.340 --> 00:40:14.300 I'm tired. What's wrong? I'm really tired. 00:40:14.600 --> 00:40:18.180 You, you, you, it's, it's amazing to get the show on the road. 00:40:19.040 --> 00:40:23.640 There's a road? There's a road? Oh my God, there's a road. 00:40:24.760 --> 00:40:26.480 And we are back. 00:40:27.060 --> 00:40:28.140 Timed it perfectly. 00:40:29.160 --> 00:40:35.180 As always, you're quite the consummate professional there. Okay, so let's do this. 00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:43.640 I'm going to do two movies. And in between, maybe you have some media you've 00:40:43.640 --> 00:40:45.720 seen recently that you would like to talk about as well. 00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:49.940 So I will do the first one, then I'll ask you for one. Then I'll do one. 00:40:50.100 --> 00:40:53.520 Then I'll ask you for one. And then we'll take another break and see where we are. 00:40:54.340 --> 00:40:58.880 I see Ed like thinking deeply about what he might want to talk about. 00:40:59.240 --> 00:41:01.660 I'm thinking the last movie I saw was Wicked. 00:41:02.640 --> 00:41:03.300 Was which? 00:41:04.180 --> 00:41:04.580 Wicked. 00:41:05.260 --> 00:41:08.960 Almost a year ago. That's okay. You can talk about that. Or you probably watched 00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:11.040 some TV or read some books. Those are fine too. 00:41:11.100 --> 00:41:14.820 Actually, I guess that's about as recently as you've been hitting them too, isn't it? 00:41:15.060 --> 00:41:21.060 Yeah. Well, the one I'm about to do, I watched on August 19th of last year. 00:41:21.480 --> 00:41:26.520 So we're not quite a year in the past. And this, again, this is why I have to 00:41:26.520 --> 00:41:28.320 start doing like two a week instead of one. 00:41:28.640 --> 00:41:34.620 But I'll try to make them slightly faster, I guess. Is faster the right word? 00:41:35.100 --> 00:41:39.260 Okay. This first one is, I mentioned this last week, 00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:43.340 it's Judas and the Black Messiah, which is 00:41:43.340 --> 00:41:47.400 a a biographical historical drama 00:41:47.400 --> 00:41:51.160 from 2021 okay and 00:41:51.160 --> 00:41:57.500 and i told yvonne last week it was more a film festival film than it was like 00:41:57.500 --> 00:42:03.920 a mass popular film that everybody would know about you know it's its budget 00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:10.840 was only 26 million dollars and it made 7.5 million so it lost money at the box office. 00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:16.060 But the basic thing is it's a... It is... 00:42:17.370 --> 00:42:25.690 Okay, the Wikipedia one-liner is, the film is about the betrayal against Fred Hampton, 00:42:26.190 --> 00:42:31.750 chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late 1960s Chicago, 00:42:31.990 --> 00:42:36.290 by William O'Neill, an FBI informant. 00:42:36.290 --> 00:42:39.650 And so it's a biopic so 00:42:39.650 --> 00:42:43.670 it's you know based on a true story but fictionalized and 00:42:43.670 --> 00:42:46.970 you know so they're you know it's not an actual documentary 00:42:46.970 --> 00:42:52.670 there are actors playing the parts they've made up dialogue for situations that 00:42:52.670 --> 00:43:00.410 you know we don't have actual transcripts of etc and and in as is usual for 00:43:00.410 --> 00:43:04.470 these kinds of things i don't know specifically about this one but for this kind of drama. 00:43:04.730 --> 00:43:09.270 They often sort of make composite characters so that you have less people to 00:43:09.270 --> 00:43:13.150 keep track of than real life. They simplify certain situations. 00:43:13.150 --> 00:43:15.270 They heighten others for the drama. 00:43:15.890 --> 00:43:19.570 In any case, it was a, you know. 00:43:20.330 --> 00:43:24.630 Basically a situation where this guy, 00:43:24.810 --> 00:43:36.230 William O'Neill, was arrested in Chicago for trying to steal a car by pretending to be an FBI agent. 00:43:36.370 --> 00:43:40.250 That was his scheme for like stealing the car instead of like, 00:43:40.410 --> 00:43:44.610 you know, pulling a gun on somebody or whatever, he pretended to be an agent and take the car, 00:43:44.790 --> 00:43:53.410 you know, and he was caught and they basically made a deal with him that if 00:43:53.410 --> 00:44:00.210 he was acting as an informant for the government and worked to try to infiltrate the Black Panthers, 00:44:00.490 --> 00:44:05.230 that they wouldn't charge him for the crime that he had clearly done. 00:44:06.450 --> 00:44:13.350 And so over the next few years, you know, he got into the Black Panthers and 00:44:13.350 --> 00:44:19.770 rose up in the ranks of the Black Panthers while always secretly being an informant for the feds. 00:44:19.770 --> 00:44:27.830 And then eventually this whole situation, well, I'm mixing a couple things up. 00:44:29.150 --> 00:44:34.990 So the guy I talked about got close to this other guy, Hampton, 00:44:34.990 --> 00:44:41.370 who was forming alliance with various gangs while working with the Black Panthers as well. 00:44:42.330 --> 00:44:50.230 Hampton became the one who became further up in the leadership and you know he was, 00:44:51.160 --> 00:44:54.200 eventually betrayed, like it said. 00:44:55.200 --> 00:45:01.780 Yes, yes. Hampton was betrayed by O'Neill. Anyway, that's the drama of the thing. Spoilers, sorry. 00:45:02.640 --> 00:45:09.380 And I'm vacillating on the spoilers. 00:45:09.980 --> 00:45:15.100 The whole situation explodes at the end. There's significant consequences and 00:45:15.100 --> 00:45:18.060 we see how all that plays out. 00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:24.820 The only actor I recognized in this thing was Martin Sheen, who, 00:45:24.840 --> 00:45:27.100 who played, who did he play exactly? 00:45:27.280 --> 00:45:30.120 Someone high up in the, did he actually play Hoover? 00:45:30.580 --> 00:45:34.860 I forget who he played. He played someone high up in the FBI and, 00:45:35.100 --> 00:45:37.960 but I'll give it a thumbs up. It was good. 00:45:38.380 --> 00:45:46.640 It, it, it, It was not, you know, as a, as this kind of sort of biographical, 00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:48.320 historical drama, blah, blah, blah. 00:45:49.820 --> 00:45:55.660 It's definitely not your like, it's not like watching the superhero movie or 00:45:55.660 --> 00:45:57.860 going to an action film or whatever. 00:45:58.200 --> 00:46:04.100 It's more serious than that. It's more, it's not quite documentary style, 00:46:04.120 --> 00:46:10.560 but it's getting there. But it was compelling, and it was a little slice of history I didn't know. 00:46:11.020 --> 00:46:19.780 Also, like most things like this, it's coming to you from a particular point of view. 00:46:20.260 --> 00:46:28.540 So it's hard when you watch this knowing, okay, how much of this was real? 00:46:28.820 --> 00:46:33.580 How much of it is spinning it to make this guy look good? 00:46:33.580 --> 00:46:38.220 How much of it is spinning it to make this guy look bad, you know, 00:46:38.460 --> 00:46:44.880 and as opposed to a, what, what really happened, you know, like, 00:46:45.540 --> 00:46:50.260 and I, and by the way, Martin Sheen was indeed playing Jagger Hoover. 00:46:50.520 --> 00:46:56.760 So look, look that up while, while I was talking, but yeah, so it's, 00:46:56.820 --> 00:47:00.140 it's hard to tell. Like, I mean, I guess that's true even of documentaries. 00:47:00.140 --> 00:47:01.820 They're coming from a point of view, too. 00:47:02.080 --> 00:47:04.980 And sometimes it's more neutral. Sometimes it's not. 00:47:06.220 --> 00:47:11.800 But regardless, it was compelling. There's a slice of history I didn't know 00:47:11.800 --> 00:47:20.840 about sort of 1960s Black Panthers versus FBI stuff going on in Chicago, 00:47:20.840 --> 00:47:24.300 which I'm sure was mirrored in other places around the country as well. 00:47:24.960 --> 00:47:30.600 And I don't want to say it was fun. It was not fun, but it was good. 00:47:32.450 --> 00:47:39.250 So that that's my review of that one and yeah your turn well. 00:47:39.250 --> 00:47:45.250 I as i said i the last movie i saw was almost a year ago somehow we just don't 00:47:45.250 --> 00:47:49.450 seem to get to them very much anymore for whatever reason too busy i guess uh. 00:47:49.450 --> 00:47:52.490 And you know pandemic kind of broke that habit 00:47:52.490 --> 00:47:56.170 in a lot of people too even the ones that were going regularly but 00:47:56.170 --> 00:47:59.030 it's starting to pick up i've gone to a couple movies in person 00:47:59.030 --> 00:48:05.250 i went to a movie in person yesterday i will not talk about it today i'll talk 00:48:05.250 --> 00:48:10.210 about it like next year sometime probably if i go at this pace but and and i 00:48:10.210 --> 00:48:14.290 also saw wicked in the theater but i have not gotten to it in order yet so i'm 00:48:14.290 --> 00:48:17.890 not going to talk about it but i'll let you talk about it other than well. 00:48:17.890 --> 00:48:19.150 Rather than that. 00:48:19.150 --> 00:48:20.750 I'll preview my thoughts what. 00:48:20.750 --> 00:48:21.590 We did do. 00:48:21.590 --> 00:48:23.330 Is uh yes on. 00:48:23.330 --> 00:48:28.230 And on Oscar night, our son and his wife and our daughter and her husband, 00:48:28.270 --> 00:48:32.750 we all went to an Oscars party at the local theater here. 00:48:33.070 --> 00:48:33.270 Okay. 00:48:33.390 --> 00:48:39.730 It was great fun. They have an open bar and food catered by a bunch of the restaurants in town. 00:48:39.930 --> 00:48:43.770 And then when the Oscars start, we all go in and fill up the whole theater. 00:48:44.030 --> 00:48:47.290 I have never watched an Oscars show clear through. 00:48:47.590 --> 00:48:52.450 I watch a few minutes of it and get bored out of my skull and go off and do something else. 00:48:52.450 --> 00:48:56.170 I think years ago, like I'm, 00:48:56.760 --> 00:49:01.300 I went through like maybe two or three years where I actually like forced myself 00:49:01.300 --> 00:49:06.820 to watch all of the major award shows from beginning to end. But then. 00:49:07.100 --> 00:49:08.240 That's your OCD coming in again. 00:49:08.260 --> 00:49:11.460 That's my OCD coming in. I was like, I'll watch all of them. 00:49:11.460 --> 00:49:13.280 So I know what's going on. 00:49:13.440 --> 00:49:18.560 And, you know, I'll watch the Oscars. So I'll have an idea. 00:49:18.760 --> 00:49:21.580 Oh, these were the important films of the year. Blah, blah, blah. 00:49:21.620 --> 00:49:24.980 I'll watch the Grammys. So I'll know what's going on with that kind of stuff. 00:49:25.100 --> 00:49:27.860 I'll watch the Emmys. I don't think I did the Tonys. 00:49:28.280 --> 00:49:32.400 But if, if, if somebody does an Oscars party like that, you know, 00:49:32.560 --> 00:49:37.720 in a theater, I highly recommend it because somehow being in the audience, 00:49:37.980 --> 00:49:41.560 being in a live audience there, it really was kind of fun. 00:49:41.660 --> 00:49:43.540 And we all stayed for the whole show. 00:49:44.140 --> 00:49:44.300 Yeah. 00:49:44.660 --> 00:49:48.920 Because after watching a few of them on TV, I decided, okay, 00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:50.080 I never need to do that again. 00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:53.900 So since then I've only watched highlights if, if there weren't. 00:49:53.900 --> 00:49:59.720 You know, even a funny joke that someone tells and you're sitting alone, you don't laugh at it. 00:50:00.020 --> 00:50:03.700 When you're in a crowd like that, laughter and enjoyment is contagious. 00:50:04.040 --> 00:50:08.060 Right. And pretty soon things aren't even necessary that become kind of entertaining 00:50:08.060 --> 00:50:10.420 and fun. So, yeah, it was a good time. 00:50:11.180 --> 00:50:17.420 If there's one going on, I would say go to it because if it includes dinners 00:50:17.420 --> 00:50:20.980 and drink and everything else, I don't know, it's $45, $50, $60 a person. 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:26.560 It's worth it. It's five, six hours of entertainment, and it's clearly worth it. 00:50:27.080 --> 00:50:31.980 Now, watching the Oscars in person at a party didn't inspire you to immediately 00:50:31.980 --> 00:50:35.880 go out and seek out where you could watch all those movies? 00:50:36.530 --> 00:50:36.930 No. 00:50:39.110 --> 00:50:40.310 Not for any of them? 00:50:40.870 --> 00:50:44.090 A couple of them. Well, we had seen a couple, three of them last because we 00:50:44.090 --> 00:50:48.730 did go to, we had seen Wicked and we saw Oppenheimer and a few of the other 00:50:48.730 --> 00:50:49.950 shows that were nominated. 00:50:50.190 --> 00:50:54.970 But no, I just, we just somehow don't seem to get to the theater that much. 00:50:55.110 --> 00:50:57.650 We're even a contributing member. 00:50:57.970 --> 00:50:59.830 Now, Ed, you don't have to watch 00:50:59.830 --> 00:51:04.850 movies at the theater. Like 99% of the movies I watch, I watch at home. 00:51:04.850 --> 00:51:10.410 Well, I'm doing that. My wife sort of dictates what we watch. 00:51:10.590 --> 00:51:16.390 She watches a lot of them and she likes to get the old series or any series 00:51:16.390 --> 00:51:20.870 and binge watch it over three or four days. You will watch 10 years of episodes. 00:51:21.350 --> 00:51:27.110 So right now we're watching one that's, it's an FBI versus the CIA thing to 00:51:27.110 --> 00:51:30.770 do with a lady who's been tattooed. I don't remember the name of it. 00:51:31.250 --> 00:51:31.930 That's helpful. 00:51:32.790 --> 00:51:38.570 And the tattoo, she was kidnapped and brainwashed, and the tattoos are clues 00:51:38.570 --> 00:51:40.290 to crimes that are coming up. 00:51:40.410 --> 00:51:44.470 So they solve what a tattoo means, and then they go out and stop the crime. 00:51:45.070 --> 00:51:47.290 That's not a good idea. It's kind of fun. 00:51:50.450 --> 00:51:54.710 Tonight's episode, geez, I'm going into another one. This will be my second. 00:51:54.710 --> 00:51:56.890 Tonight's episode showed that 00:51:56.890 --> 00:52:04.250 the leader of the FBI group had participated in a crime arrest program. 00:52:04.250 --> 00:52:05.910 Okay, is it called Blindspot? 00:52:06.290 --> 00:52:07.550 That's it, Blindspot. 00:52:07.770 --> 00:52:12.870 Okay, I've been frantically Googling over here the things you've said to try to find it. 00:52:13.090 --> 00:52:14.150 That is it, yeah. 00:52:15.270 --> 00:52:22.790 Blindspot, and let's see, it was on TV from 2015 to 2020, five seasons. 00:52:23.250 --> 00:52:26.910 Five seasons, woo! We're going to see a lot of it then. But the leader of the 00:52:26.910 --> 00:52:33.390 group participated in a basically illegal wiretapping and got a whole bunch 00:52:33.390 --> 00:52:35.590 of people arrested over the years. 00:52:35.870 --> 00:52:39.230 And then tonight that became an issue in the episode. 00:52:39.870 --> 00:52:45.370 And they all disagreed. This is law. It's illegal in this country. Not supposed to do that. 00:52:45.630 --> 00:52:51.650 But if we turn you in, all these really bad guys that you got arrested are going to be released. 00:52:52.150 --> 00:52:55.590 And they addressed, I thought, with, you know, some depth. 00:52:55.970 --> 00:53:00.330 And the characters did it. But it has the CIA guy is, you know, 00:53:00.410 --> 00:53:03.110 someone who ought to be stabbed in the back in a dark alley. 00:53:03.770 --> 00:53:05.290 And they portray him that way. 00:53:06.010 --> 00:53:09.730 But, hey, it's a fun show. But, you know, it's worth watching. 00:53:09.870 --> 00:53:10.190 Thumbs up? 00:53:10.230 --> 00:53:11.890 Thumbs up, yeah. I'll give it a thumbs up. 00:53:12.290 --> 00:53:12.690 Okay. 00:53:13.150 --> 00:53:15.750 The Oscar party is definitely both thumbs up. 00:53:16.420 --> 00:53:23.000 Okay, I will do my next movie, and then I'll ask you for one more thing. 00:53:23.200 --> 00:53:29.720 Okay, my next movie, speaking of something that the other movie was not, 00:53:29.900 --> 00:53:31.380 this is a superhero movie. 00:53:31.540 --> 00:53:34.700 This was X-Men from the year 2000. 00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:41.680 So this was the original X-Men movie. There's obviously been a series of them following up from that. 00:53:41.680 --> 00:53:44.560 And it yeah let's see it's 00:53:44.560 --> 00:53:48.240 like it's it's not is 00:53:48.240 --> 00:53:51.060 it the origin not quite the origin it starts at the beginning it 00:53:51.060 --> 00:53:55.080 starts with magneto in 1944 nazi 00:53:55.080 --> 00:53:58.560 or occupied poland and then 00:53:58.560 --> 00:54:01.440 it then it zoop zoops zoops is 00:54:01.440 --> 00:54:04.660 that a word zooms forward zoops okay 00:54:04.660 --> 00:54:07.940 zoop zoop anyway then 00:54:07.940 --> 00:54:15.120 it it brings a bunch of the x-men together and you know they and you know it's 00:54:15.120 --> 00:54:22.380 a superhero movie i could i could read you the plot of it but you know i i i 00:54:22.380 --> 00:54:26.140 don't know if it's sort of like rom-coms. 00:54:26.140 --> 00:54:27.240 It's always the same plot. 00:54:27.240 --> 00:54:30.740 Yeah well you know this is i'll 00:54:30.740 --> 00:54:33.920 read you the the the again the 00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:37.620 the shortest part of the description from wikipedia 00:54:37.620 --> 00:54:40.680 the film depicts a world where an 00:54:40.680 --> 00:54:44.780 unknown proportion of people are mutants possessing superhuman 00:54:44.780 --> 00:54:47.820 powers that make them distrusted by normal humans 00:54:47.820 --> 00:54:54.120 it focuses on mutants wolverine and rogue as they are brought into a conflict 00:54:54.120 --> 00:54:58.720 between two groups with radically different approaches to bringing about the 00:54:58.720 --> 00:55:06.760 acceptance of mutant kind charles xavier's x-men and the Brotherhood of Mutants led by Magneto. 00:55:07.140 --> 00:55:09.940 And so, there you go. 00:55:10.360 --> 00:55:12.660 I'm gonna give it a thumbs up. 00:55:13.120 --> 00:55:18.780 You know, wavering towards the thumbs sideways, I remember, you know, 00:55:18.840 --> 00:55:21.700 and again, this has been almost a year since I saw the stupid movie, 00:55:21.860 --> 00:55:25.080 but it's been ten months. But I... 00:55:25.870 --> 00:55:29.010 You know, I kind of grayed within a curve within the genre. 00:55:29.310 --> 00:55:36.310 It wasn't particularly memorable, but I remember having fun while I watched it. 00:55:36.570 --> 00:55:39.930 And for this kind of movie, that's what you want. 00:55:40.130 --> 00:55:46.330 You know, you just want a couple hours of escapism where, you know. 00:55:47.090 --> 00:55:51.950 Whatever happens and you watch it play out. 00:55:51.950 --> 00:55:55.570 And they use their superpowers and they have some battles. 00:55:55.870 --> 00:55:58.770 And there's a little bit of human drama around it. 00:55:58.930 --> 00:56:04.510 Typically for me, like the superhero movies that I will give a flat out like 00:56:04.510 --> 00:56:09.890 thumbs down to are the ones that really lean heavily into the action components 00:56:09.890 --> 00:56:11.570 and away from characters. 00:56:12.050 --> 00:56:18.490 Like I, I find myself like almost tuning out, like when they're actually in 00:56:18.490 --> 00:56:22.430 the big climactic battle, it's sort of like, okay, tell me when the battle's 00:56:22.430 --> 00:56:26.290 over. I know some people watch these things just for that. 00:56:26.870 --> 00:56:31.890 I kind of watch the even superhero movies. 00:56:32.130 --> 00:56:37.030 I watch for, are there interesting plot points? 00:56:37.170 --> 00:56:41.050 Is there, are there interesting interactions between the characters? 00:56:41.370 --> 00:56:47.970 Are they, you know, is there good dialogue that I enjoy that's like clever in some way? 00:56:47.970 --> 00:56:51.430 Those are the things that like get me and 00:56:51.430 --> 00:56:54.530 and make me interested and i 00:56:54.530 --> 00:56:57.450 again i don't see anything i i i'm not 00:56:57.450 --> 00:57:03.210 remembering anything that like this was outstanding on any of those fronts but 00:57:03.210 --> 00:57:08.630 it was it was fine it was good it was you know it was entertaining as it needed 00:57:08.630 --> 00:57:14.190 to be i didn't feel like it was too too so heavy on the action that i just got 00:57:14.190 --> 00:57:16.710 bored and annoyed because that was all there was. 00:57:17.510 --> 00:57:21.570 And, you know, and I don't know, maybe I shouldn't grade on a curve. 00:57:21.770 --> 00:57:24.010 Maybe that should be a thumb sideways when it was just like, 00:57:24.050 --> 00:57:25.790 oh, it was okay. I don't know. 00:57:26.310 --> 00:57:34.830 Uh, I, I tend to leave the thumb sideways more like thumbs down is just straight up. Like, oh, I hated it. 00:57:35.630 --> 00:57:37.370 Unambiguously. I hated it. 00:57:38.230 --> 00:57:39.710 The Blair Witch Project. 00:57:40.170 --> 00:57:44.890 No, no, you gave a thumbs down to Blair Witch. I actually thought it was okay. 00:57:45.330 --> 00:57:46.930 We've talked about this before. 00:57:47.170 --> 00:57:47.950 Yeah, I know. 00:57:48.530 --> 00:57:55.990 But yeah. Maybe I should save the thumbs up for the ones that I thought were really outstanding. 00:57:56.190 --> 00:57:58.270 But they're very few. Those are few and far between. 00:58:00.350 --> 00:58:04.450 Most movies are, eh, it was an okay couple hours. 00:58:05.230 --> 00:58:10.970 And I leave, Thumbs Sideways is a little bit below that, and Thumbs Down is I absolutely hated it. 00:58:13.230 --> 00:58:17.170 Okay that was mine so then the next one i want to know because you mentioned 00:58:17.170 --> 00:58:20.750 it a couple times what did you think of wicked part one. 00:58:20.750 --> 00:58:24.230 I liked it a lot yeah it was we saw 00:58:24.230 --> 00:58:26.930 the uh the stage presentation when we were 00:58:26.930 --> 00:58:32.150 in san in uh jacksonville and it was superb we took one of the grandkids to 00:58:32.150 --> 00:58:37.530 it as i recall but the movie i thought was just spectacular the singing is good 00:58:37.530 --> 00:58:45.370 The costumes are exotic Just overall, highly entertaining, 00:58:46.510 --> 00:58:52.730 You don't go to it to see the plot The plot's sort of thin But I really thought 00:58:52.730 --> 00:58:54.710 it was excellent Well done. 00:58:54.810 --> 00:58:59.930 And well worth seeing I'll give a preview Although I'll talk about Wicked in 00:58:59.930 --> 00:59:02.110 order When I eventually get to it some year, 00:59:02.710 --> 00:59:06.450 But first of all, I also saw the play my 00:59:06.450 --> 00:59:09.390 wife my daughter and i saw it 00:59:09.390 --> 00:59:13.030 on broadway with the original cast so we 00:59:13.030 --> 00:59:20.190 we it was still adina mizel and and what's her name who played glinda i'm i 00:59:20.190 --> 00:59:25.770 remember i i i am upset that i am not remembering it off the top of my head 00:59:25.770 --> 00:59:31.290 christian chanelworth oh okay yeah so i i saw it would be Glinda. 00:59:31.810 --> 00:59:36.770 Yes. So I saw it with, with, with the original cast on Broadway. 00:59:37.210 --> 00:59:40.650 It was great on Broadway, liked it at that point. 00:59:40.810 --> 00:59:45.510 And actually like, so it was one of the few movies where I actually brought 00:59:45.510 --> 00:59:50.330 up like to, to my daughter and to Alex, Brandy was out of town at the time. 00:59:50.790 --> 00:59:54.990 Do you guys want to see this? Like not, not only while it's still in the theaters, 00:59:55.150 --> 00:59:59.170 but fairly soon after it opened, we saw it like, we didn't see it on opening 00:59:59.170 --> 01:00:01.690 day, but we saw it like a week later or something like that. 01:00:03.030 --> 01:00:07.710 And my, my preview is I also, I agree with you. Thumbs up. It was, it was good. 01:00:08.390 --> 01:00:12.010 Front to back, kept my attention. We took my mom to it. 01:00:12.510 --> 01:00:15.710 Her review was, it was too loud. 01:00:15.910 --> 01:00:20.650 She had to keep her thumbs in her ears the whole time because the volume was 01:00:20.650 --> 01:00:22.310 too loud in the theater we went to. 01:00:23.790 --> 01:00:28.590 I have to agree, the theaters play stuff too damn loud. 01:00:28.770 --> 01:00:33.310 I'm deaf at this point. I have hearing aids. I turn my hearing aids off in the 01:00:33.310 --> 01:00:38.270 movies because it's just, I don't know why you make it so loud it's it's a lot 01:00:38.270 --> 01:00:42.530 parts of it are so loud that there's damaging to those of you who still have good ears. 01:00:42.530 --> 01:00:46.450 Yeah i i mean it's one 01:00:46.450 --> 01:00:50.050 of the reasons they want to make it really and truly immersive they want to 01:00:50.050 --> 01:00:53.790 make it different than what you can get at home so they want to crank it up 01:00:53.790 --> 01:00:58.130 in in all kinds of different ways they want to make it absolutely impossible 01:00:58.130 --> 01:01:02.170 for you to get distracted by other things you are you are going to be paying 01:01:02.170 --> 01:01:04.190 attention to that movie you know, 01:01:05.350 --> 01:01:09.730 but yeah maybe I'll talk more about it when it comes up in order but I agree 01:01:09.730 --> 01:01:18.370 thumbs up for Wicked it was a good movie let's take another break real quick and then when we return, 01:01:19.610 --> 01:01:26.790 we will come up with one more topic and this time we will make it a newsy topic I think, 01:01:28.810 --> 01:01:31.790 who knows maybe we'll come up with something else that isn't But, 01:01:31.990 --> 01:01:33.390 you know, probably newsy. 01:01:34.670 --> 01:01:41.950 So anyway, back after this. And this is a Wiki of the Day one. So here we go. 01:01:42.850 --> 01:01:45.870 Do, do, do. Hello. This is Standard Raveena. 01:01:46.290 --> 01:01:49.790 I'm here to let you know about Sam the Curmudgeon's other podcasts. 01:01:50.010 --> 01:01:53.910 The Wiki of the Day podcasts. Wiki of the Day comes in three varieties. 01:01:54.270 --> 01:01:56.430 Popular, random, and featured. 01:01:56.810 --> 01:02:02.210 Each highlights a new Wikipedia article each day. They just pick the articles differently. 01:02:02.570 --> 01:02:07.310 This week on Featured Wiki of the Day, you would have heard this summary for Sudasticus. 01:02:07.990 --> 01:02:13.710 Pseudasticus, meaning false astachos, in comparison to the extant crayfish genus, 01:02:13.830 --> 01:02:18.350 is an extinct genus of decoupod crustaceans that lived during the Jurassic period 01:02:18.350 --> 01:02:21.530 in Europe, and possibly the Cretaceous period in Lebanon. 01:02:21.950 --> 01:02:26.210 Many species have been assigned to it, though the placement of some species 01:02:26.210 --> 01:02:30.090 remains uncertain and others have been reassigned to different genera. 01:02:30.090 --> 01:02:34.950 Fossils attributable to this genus were first described by Georg Zuhmunster 01:02:34.950 --> 01:02:40.350 in 1839 under the name Bolina Pustulosa, but the generic name was changed in 01:02:40.350 --> 01:02:44.090 1861 after Albert Oppel noted that it was preoccupied. 01:02:44.090 --> 01:02:48.290 The genus has been placed into different families by numerous authors, 01:02:48.630 --> 01:02:52.110 historically being assigned to Nephropidae or Protostagidae. 01:02:52.230 --> 01:02:54.030 Currently, it is believed to 01:02:54.030 --> 01:03:00.190 be a member of Stenakiridae reaching up to 6 cm, 2.4 in, in total length. 01:03:00.670 --> 01:03:05.550 Sudastachis was a small animal. Members of this genus have a crayfish-like build, 01:03:05.750 --> 01:03:10.750 possessing long antennae, a triangular rostrum and a frontmost pair of appendages 01:03:10.750 --> 01:03:13.190 enlarged into long and narrow pincers. 01:03:13.770 --> 01:03:18.290 Deep grooves are present on the carapace, which is around the same length as the abdomen. 01:03:18.590 --> 01:03:23.790 The surface of the carapace is usually uneven, with either small tubercles or pits. 01:03:24.290 --> 01:03:29.330 Sexual dimorphism is known in P. pustulosis, with the pincers of females being 01:03:29.330 --> 01:03:31.590 more elongated than those of the males. 01:03:32.010 --> 01:03:35.150 There is evidence of possible gregarious behavior in P. 01:03:35.250 --> 01:03:39.370 Lemurvices in the form of multiple individuals preserved alongside each other, 01:03:39.610 --> 01:03:41.930 possibly killed in a mass mortality event. 01:03:41.930 --> 01:03:46.490 With the oldest known record dating to the Cinemarion age of the early Jurassic, 01:03:46.850 --> 01:03:51.550 and possible species surviving into the Cinemanian stage of the late Cretaceous, 01:03:51.870 --> 01:03:55.830 Pseudasticus has a long temporal range and was a widespread taxon. 01:03:56.250 --> 01:04:00.870 Fossils of this animal were first found in the Solenhofen limestone of Germany, 01:04:01.110 --> 01:04:05.010 but have also been recorded from France, England, and Lebanon. 01:04:05.270 --> 01:04:08.870 All species in this genus lived in marine environments. 01:04:09.410 --> 01:04:11.010 That's all there is to it. 01:04:11.590 --> 01:04:15.630 See? Fun, entertaining, educational, and short. 01:04:16.030 --> 01:04:21.050 Okay, now look for and subscribe to the Wiki of the Day family of podcasts on 01:04:21.050 --> 01:04:27.190 your podcast playing software of choice, or just go to wikioftheday.com to check out our archives. 01:04:27.470 --> 01:04:30.570 Now back to curmudgeon's corner. Do, do, do. 01:04:31.110 --> 01:04:33.510 Well, there we go. I hope you learned a lot, Ed. 01:04:34.150 --> 01:04:37.950 You know, as she was reading that, it occurred to me, 01:04:38.880 --> 01:04:43.500 What must be the life of a scientist when his grandchild sits on his knee and 01:04:43.500 --> 01:04:50.100 says, what did you do, grandpa? And he says, oh, I classified worms from 10 million years ago. 01:04:53.700 --> 01:04:57.800 Yes, well, you know, this one was a crustacean. 01:04:58.100 --> 01:05:04.640 But yes, there are scientists out there whose entire career is classifying worms 01:05:04.640 --> 01:05:06.640 from 10 million years ago or whatever. 01:05:06.760 --> 01:05:07.180 There you go. 01:05:07.180 --> 01:05:12.740 You know, so, you know, and, and, and there are certainly some times where I 01:05:12.740 --> 01:05:18.420 am jealous of that career and that, that would be, you know, that would be fun. 01:05:18.460 --> 01:05:21.920 When my phone rang, when my phone rang at one o'clock in the morning for someone 01:05:21.920 --> 01:05:26.920 who had broken an ankle, I was sort of thinking maybe classifying worms would be nice. 01:05:29.440 --> 01:05:32.320 Yes. And not the intestinal parasite kind. 01:05:33.020 --> 01:05:33.400 Right. 01:05:35.520 --> 01:05:41.500 Anyway. Anyway, so Ed, do you have a preference for a last topic of the show? 01:05:41.940 --> 01:05:46.080 Well, I guess the most current thing, I mean, we've already talked pretty much 01:05:46.080 --> 01:05:48.820 about what's going on in L.A. and in our presidency. 01:05:49.220 --> 01:05:49.920 We touched on it. 01:05:49.920 --> 01:05:51.520 And I'm tired of talking about him anyway. 01:05:51.780 --> 01:05:52.000 Okay. 01:05:52.000 --> 01:06:00.000 Yeah. But how about just a real brief rundown of what's going on in Israel, which is, to me, 01:06:00.500 --> 01:06:07.320 the Israel attack on Iran is what I would call an offensive operation. 01:06:07.680 --> 01:06:12.780 And since it was preemptive, which means that Iran had not committed any military 01:06:12.780 --> 01:06:15.700 action against it, might be planning one, I don't know. 01:06:15.700 --> 01:06:23.480 But that was, by most international standards, was a crime, an offensive assault 01:06:23.480 --> 01:06:26.960 on a neighboring nation's 01:06:27.340 --> 01:06:30.600 that is breaking all the rules. 01:06:32.100 --> 01:06:38.120 But more of a problem probably coming is that the whole Middle East, 01:06:38.220 --> 01:06:39.720 this is going to throw the whole Middle East. 01:06:39.920 --> 01:06:44.720 I really think that place is likely to explode big and bad. 01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:51.640 There's a bunch of people from Egypt who are marching towards Israel that I hear today. 01:06:51.980 --> 01:06:54.660 Not an army, a group of people. 01:06:54.820 --> 01:06:57.060 I have not heard that at this point. 01:06:57.060 --> 01:07:00.800 I didn't hear the description of it. I just heard a brief thing on it. 01:07:00.880 --> 01:07:02.260 I don't know anything about it. 01:07:02.440 --> 01:07:07.480 One key thing here is that as we are recording this on Friday night U.S. 01:07:07.960 --> 01:07:09.680 Time, this is still ongoing. 01:07:10.680 --> 01:07:15.400 Israel is still attacking Iran, and Iran is still retaliating against Israel. 01:07:15.580 --> 01:07:18.520 These things are still happening as we are speaking. 01:07:18.980 --> 01:07:22.740 So let's talk a few of the details of this. 01:07:22.860 --> 01:07:28.440 As you said, it was preemptive. that the basic theory and, you know, 01:07:28.500 --> 01:07:32.040 Netanyahu has been wanting to do this for at least a decade. 01:07:32.380 --> 01:07:37.340 Oh, yeah. And they've done a few smaller attacks on Iran. 01:07:37.740 --> 01:07:42.820 But fundamentally, the notion is, hey, look, Iran has a nuclear capacity. 01:07:43.140 --> 01:07:45.320 They've been developing over the years. 01:07:45.840 --> 01:07:51.080 Iran has insisted up and down from the very beginning that they have no intention 01:07:51.080 --> 01:07:55.980 of doing nuclear weapons, that this is a civilian program for nuclear energy, et cetera. 01:07:56.420 --> 01:08:02.040 Their religious leader has on a few occasions actually issued statements saying 01:08:02.040 --> 01:08:07.780 that the use of nuclear weapons is a horrible sin and should never be contemplated, 01:08:07.980 --> 01:08:08.920 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 01:08:09.100 --> 01:08:15.180 But nevertheless, Western intelligence agencies, including both Israel and the U.S. 01:08:15.240 --> 01:08:17.520 And others, don't believe them. 01:08:18.520 --> 01:08:22.840 The International Atomic Energy Association also says, They're lying. 01:08:23.400 --> 01:08:29.080 Well, no. Well, the last time they were in there for sure, it wasn't that clear 01:08:29.080 --> 01:08:31.520 cut in terms of their, like wit. 01:08:32.870 --> 01:08:36.250 We'll get back to it. Let's finish up the scenario. I'll get back to that. 01:08:36.470 --> 01:08:42.110 But fundamentally, all of the Western intelligence agencies believe that that's just a cover. 01:08:42.930 --> 01:08:48.030 What they're trying to do is even if they don't build a bomb today, 01:08:48.030 --> 01:08:53.230 they want to make sure their capabilities are such that if they decided to build 01:08:53.230 --> 01:08:55.550 a bomb, they could do so in days. 01:08:56.070 --> 01:09:03.610 They want to have everything in place so that, you know, at a moment's notice, they could decide, 01:09:04.150 --> 01:09:09.890 you know, actually we do need a nuclear bomb and have it almost instantaneously 01:09:09.890 --> 01:09:11.390 before anybody could stop them. 01:09:11.670 --> 01:09:15.290 And the West's position on that is that's equivalent. 01:09:15.850 --> 01:09:21.430 Even if all you are actually doing with your nuclear program is civilian uses, 01:09:21.850 --> 01:09:28.590 if what you build out is such that you could switch it to a military use overnight, 01:09:28.930 --> 01:09:34.050 then we don't want you having that, Let alone if you actually build the nuclear devices. 01:09:34.790 --> 01:09:41.990 And so, you know, there have been, you know, like I said, occasional Israeli 01:09:41.990 --> 01:09:48.230 attacks to take out one thing or another in Iran, or take out an individual scientist or two, 01:09:48.510 --> 01:09:50.670 attack a facility or two, going back decades. 01:09:50.670 --> 01:09:53.490 This attack is 01:09:53.490 --> 01:09:57.410 different it is much larger in scale they 01:09:57.410 --> 01:10:00.930 have taken out a significant portion of 01:10:00.930 --> 01:10:04.270 iraq's military leadership they have taken 01:10:04.270 --> 01:10:11.230 out and as individuals not just we're taking out a a facility no they were specifically 01:10:11.230 --> 01:10:16.170 targeting individuals in leadership they were specifically targeting most of 01:10:16.170 --> 01:10:22.570 the lead scientists that were involved in this effort, and they're taking out facilities. 01:10:22.870 --> 01:10:27.330 They're taking out nuclear facilities. They're also taking out other aspects 01:10:27.330 --> 01:10:29.330 of Iran's offensive capabilities. 01:10:29.570 --> 01:10:36.550 They're taking out air bases. They're destroying planes, all of this kind of 01:10:36.550 --> 01:10:39.010 stuff on a fairly massive scale. 01:10:40.130 --> 01:10:47.090 And, you know, the stated intention being we want to completely remove the risk 01:10:47.090 --> 01:10:49.750 of them building out this nuclear program. 01:10:49.750 --> 01:10:57.430 Now, having said that, I've heard a number of military analysts and experts 01:10:57.430 --> 01:11:03.010 in what Iran actually has been doing here say that, well, 01:11:03.610 --> 01:11:10.130 one of their two big nuclear enrichment sites is buried deep, 01:11:10.310 --> 01:11:11.490 deep, deep within a mountain. 01:11:12.300 --> 01:11:20.740 And even if you destroyed all of the surface entrances and buried it and cut 01:11:20.740 --> 01:11:26.360 it off from external power, et cetera, that's just a delay until they dig it back out again. 01:11:26.840 --> 01:11:30.160 Because Israel is not doing anything, 01:11:30.560 --> 01:11:36.760 does not have, and I'm going to caveat this in a second, they do not have the 01:11:36.760 --> 01:11:42.120 type of massive bunker buster bombs that could potentially get to this underground facility. 01:11:42.400 --> 01:11:46.620 Now, when I heard someone say that, I said, well, except we all know, 01:11:46.880 --> 01:11:48.300 actually, Israel has nukes too. 01:11:48.840 --> 01:11:53.340 Now, there's no reports that they're using them, but at least in theory, 01:11:53.520 --> 01:11:56.380 they probably could break open that mountain if they wanted to. 01:11:58.540 --> 01:12:03.820 But anyway, the massive attack from all reports so far, it's been very effective. 01:12:04.600 --> 01:12:09.180 The Iranians have, of course, responded. From all reports, their response has 01:12:09.180 --> 01:12:10.840 not been very effective. 01:12:11.240 --> 01:12:18.180 However, unlike the last time that Israel and Iran had a tit-for-tat last year 01:12:18.180 --> 01:12:24.220 sometime, I forget exactly when it was, but this time, a few did get through to Israel. 01:12:24.420 --> 01:12:26.780 There have been some actual hits on Tel Aviv. 01:12:27.020 --> 01:12:30.760 I believe it was like the Israeli army headquarters was hit. 01:12:31.460 --> 01:12:37.820 So, you know, now most of it has been stopped on the way, but there have been some hits back. 01:12:37.980 --> 01:12:40.940 And so, again, as we are speaking, it is continuing. 01:12:41.340 --> 01:12:46.520 The Israelis actually said explicitly they expect this to last several days. 01:12:47.460 --> 01:12:52.260 And we'll see. You know, of course, what everybody worries about is what you said, Ed. 01:12:52.930 --> 01:12:59.030 Does it spiral out of control to something even bigger that involves more countries in the region? 01:12:59.550 --> 01:13:04.010 One thing that was potentially, you know, Iran had threatened before this happened 01:13:04.010 --> 01:13:09.070 that if Israel did attack like that, Iran would hold the U.S. to blame. 01:13:09.250 --> 01:13:14.570 So the U.S. has been very vocal in saying we had nothing to do with this. 01:13:14.650 --> 01:13:15.790 This was just the Israelis. 01:13:15.950 --> 01:13:18.810 Iran, you better not attack us because then we will get involved. 01:13:18.810 --> 01:13:25.990 The U.S., by all reports, was not involved in the offensive strikes against Iran. 01:13:26.310 --> 01:13:34.810 However, the U.S. has been involved in helping to take out incoming weapons 01:13:34.810 --> 01:13:36.090 heading towards Israel. 01:13:37.150 --> 01:13:40.310 So we have been involved in that sense. 01:13:40.930 --> 01:13:45.250 A couple other interesting points on this, and then I'll throw it open to discussion again. 01:13:46.230 --> 01:13:53.070 There have been conflicting reports on exactly the U.S. stance on this. 01:13:53.390 --> 01:13:59.470 The initial sort of leak out of this was there was, first of all, the U.S. 01:13:59.610 --> 01:14:02.170 Did know in advance. 01:14:02.470 --> 01:14:08.090 The U.S. started moving to take non-essential personnel out of the region several 01:14:08.090 --> 01:14:13.190 days before this attack happened. They were evacuating families from embassies in the region. 01:14:13.490 --> 01:14:21.910 They were moving various military assets further away from Iran, etc. So the U.S. 01:14:22.370 --> 01:14:28.450 Had a heads up that it was happening. The initial reports out of this were that 01:14:28.450 --> 01:14:35.810 on Monday there was a phone call between Netanyahu and Donald Trump that was 01:14:35.810 --> 01:14:42.270 reportedly very contentious because Donald Trump, if you remember, 01:14:42.610 --> 01:14:47.410 is trying to renegotiate a new Iran deal on the nuclear weapons. 01:14:47.410 --> 01:14:50.510 Now, rewind a little bit. 01:14:50.910 --> 01:15:00.390 There was a deal in place that Obama had put in place that basically had, 01:15:00.610 --> 01:15:03.450 in exchange for some sanctions relief. 01:15:04.230 --> 01:15:12.170 The Iranians agreed to limit their refinement of uranium, limit their nuclear 01:15:12.170 --> 01:15:16.970 program in a bunch of ways, let the inspectors back in, all this kind of stuff. 01:15:17.050 --> 01:15:21.250 And to your comment about inspectors before, the inspector reports were that 01:15:21.250 --> 01:15:22.950 Iran was living up to that deal. 01:15:23.450 --> 01:15:29.210 Now, the Netanyahu and a bunch of conservatives in the U.S., 01:15:29.210 --> 01:15:33.810 including Donald Trump, had a big problem with this deal because they read it 01:15:33.810 --> 01:15:38.010 as this deal allows Iran to build nuclear weapons. 01:15:38.450 --> 01:15:45.230 And the reason, as far as anyone can tell was because the deal had an end date. 01:15:45.990 --> 01:15:49.710 The deal basically said, we have all these restrictions in place for 10 years, 01:15:49.710 --> 01:15:53.750 but there was no agreement past 10 years on what would happen. 01:15:54.030 --> 01:15:58.750 Now, of course, the Obama administration's stance on that was the intention 01:15:58.750 --> 01:16:06.350 was to build a trust during those 10 years and then continue negotiations on 01:16:06.350 --> 01:16:08.370 what things would look like after that. 01:16:08.570 --> 01:16:13.230 And potentially, no one would say this out loud, but if you could improve relationships 01:16:13.230 --> 01:16:18.670 enough during those 10 years, maybe you would even normalize relationships at some point. 01:16:19.070 --> 01:16:23.270 And, you know, I solved the nuclear issue as part of the way. 01:16:23.370 --> 01:16:28.850 There was also a lot of contention about how the nuclear deal that Obama negotiated 01:16:28.850 --> 01:16:33.590 was only about nuclear weapons and nuclear development. 01:16:33.870 --> 01:16:37.190 It did not include Iran. 01:16:39.450 --> 01:16:41.890 There's a difference. It did not 01:16:41.890 --> 01:16:46.810 include Iran's other activities to be militarily involved in the region. 01:16:47.030 --> 01:16:52.390 So it did not involve their development of missiles. It did not involve their 01:16:52.390 --> 01:16:55.330 participation in the war in Yemen. 01:16:55.570 --> 01:17:01.510 It did not involve their participation with various groups in Lebanon and Syria 01:17:01.510 --> 01:17:06.670 and even Hamas, all of these things. 01:17:06.830 --> 01:17:13.070 And so when Donald Trump came in, one of the very first things he did was pull out of this agreement. 01:17:13.590 --> 01:17:19.610 And of course, Iran is like, okay, well, if you've reneged on the agreement, we do too. 01:17:19.850 --> 01:17:21.910 And that's when they resume development. 01:17:22.630 --> 01:17:27.510 And so now Donald Trump got back into the presidency and he is apparently, 01:17:27.850 --> 01:17:32.550 they have now had five direct meetings between Americans and Iranians. 01:17:32.730 --> 01:17:36.230 I will give Donald Trump some credit. 01:17:36.650 --> 01:17:42.690 Like one of the things that he has no compulsions against doing that I think 01:17:42.690 --> 01:17:49.490 is actually the right approach as opposed to, you know, he's just talking directly to the Iranians. 01:17:49.630 --> 01:17:52.070 None of this like will work through intermediaries, whatever. 01:17:52.310 --> 01:17:56.510 No. There's a U.S. envoy talking to an Iranian envoy straight up. 01:17:56.630 --> 01:17:58.150 We're going to negotiate this, whatever. 01:17:58.670 --> 01:18:02.690 He did the same thing with with North Korea when he was president last time. 01:18:02.850 --> 01:18:05.690 This is something that Obama and Biden won't do. 01:18:06.270 --> 01:18:09.390 They'll they'll like work through intermediaries and blah, blah, blah. 01:18:09.470 --> 01:18:12.650 And, you know, in some cases, it's just like, you know, yes, 01:18:13.230 --> 01:18:18.250 just just get them in a room and start talking. We recognize that you may not 01:18:18.250 --> 01:18:22.490 like him, but at some point you need to talk to him and talking through intermediaries 01:18:22.490 --> 01:18:23.690 doesn't really help anything. 01:18:23.930 --> 01:18:27.170 Just talk to them. But anyway, there are five meetings that already happened. 01:18:27.630 --> 01:18:32.170 Apparently, as far as anybody has reported, what Donald Trump was trying to 01:18:32.170 --> 01:18:38.910 get out of them was essentially just going back to the agreement he'd ripped 01:18:38.910 --> 01:18:40.430 up last time he was president. 01:18:41.150 --> 01:18:45.350 With maybe some small minor 01:18:45.350 --> 01:18:48.230 changes sprinkled around the edges so he could say that 01:18:48.230 --> 01:18:51.070 he was right to kill the Obama deal and this 01:18:51.070 --> 01:18:54.130 one's oh so much better but substantively it 01:18:54.130 --> 01:18:57.390 was about the same but the Iranians weren't budging 01:18:57.390 --> 01:19:00.330 on I think the sticking point I heard was 01:19:00.330 --> 01:19:03.310 they still wanted to do some of 01:19:03.310 --> 01:19:10.090 their uranium enrichment because they stick to the line They have a civilian 01:19:10.090 --> 01:19:19.090 program that they are legally allowed to do under the non-proliferation treaty 01:19:19.090 --> 01:19:22.930 that they signed with certain reporting requirements and etc. 01:19:23.190 --> 01:19:27.530 And they want to be able to do what they're supposed to be allowed to do under that treaty. 01:19:27.870 --> 01:19:33.730 And they were not budging on that. And so back to the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, 01:19:34.030 --> 01:19:40.750 Trump was apparently trying to get Netanyahu not to do this because he wanted 01:19:40.750 --> 01:19:43.970 to continue his negotiations with Iran because, you know, 01:19:44.690 --> 01:19:49.950 This guy wants a Nobel Peace Prize. You know, he'll solve Ukraine in one day. 01:19:50.110 --> 01:19:53.550 He'll solve Gaza in five days. He'll solve the Iranian issue. 01:19:53.830 --> 01:19:56.690 One of these things, he wants to get a Nobel Peace Prize out of. 01:19:57.030 --> 01:20:03.870 But anyway, he was telling Netanyahu, please don't do this right now. 01:20:04.010 --> 01:20:06.810 We are actively negotiating with Iran. 01:20:07.710 --> 01:20:13.270 Give peace a chance. You know, we want to, we're going to try to make this do 01:20:13.270 --> 01:20:16.290 this. We're going to try to make this happen. We're going to get a deal. 01:20:16.890 --> 01:20:23.630 And Netanyahu is like, no, absolutely not. Because Netanyahu never wanted a peace deal out of this. 01:20:23.790 --> 01:20:31.170 He never wanted some scenario where Iran is bound by some agreement that may 01:20:31.170 --> 01:20:33.010 or may not be enforced over the years. 01:20:33.010 --> 01:20:39.010 He hated the agreement Obama put together, even though by all objective reports, 01:20:39.030 --> 01:20:47.410 it was doing what it was supposed to be doing and keeping Iran from developing beyond a certain point. 01:20:47.990 --> 01:20:50.910 He was never happy with that. He does not want a deal now. 01:20:51.430 --> 01:20:55.830 He wants to just go in there and destroy as much as he possibly can. 01:20:55.830 --> 01:21:02.050 And there was reporting in the last 24 hours that the Israelis recognized they 01:21:02.050 --> 01:21:06.110 probably can't actually fully destroy the nuclear program in Iran, 01:21:06.110 --> 01:21:12.910 but they want to weaken it enough to delay it significantly. 01:21:12.910 --> 01:21:19.230 And they're making noises about hoping that this gives the Iranian people an 01:21:19.230 --> 01:21:22.950 opportunity to overthrow their government, blah, blah, blah. 01:21:22.950 --> 01:21:26.190 But, okay, let's get real here. 01:21:26.410 --> 01:21:33.990 The one way, better than any other, to bring people behind a leader who isn't 01:21:33.990 --> 01:21:37.950 necessarily that popular in the first place is an external attack. 01:21:39.090 --> 01:21:46.270 You know, George W. Bush was not super popular in the first few months of his presidency. 01:21:46.690 --> 01:21:51.790 I mean, it was middling, okay, he wasn't like as unpopular as Donald Trump is, 01:21:51.930 --> 01:21:54.410 but he wasn't like a super popular president. 01:21:54.870 --> 01:22:02.590 Or, sorry, I want to, both him and, well, let's talk George W. first. Then we had 9-11. 01:22:03.470 --> 01:22:07.870 His approval rating went up to like 90 fucking percent, you know, 01:22:08.090 --> 01:22:12.030 because the country had been attacked and everyone rallied around him. 01:22:12.710 --> 01:22:19.590 And the afterglow of that lasted for years, you know, and until he started killing 01:22:19.590 --> 01:22:20.890 it himself with the Iraq war. 01:22:21.510 --> 01:22:28.050 George H.W. Bush had a similar big bump during the first Iraq war where, 01:22:28.290 --> 01:22:33.410 you know, and that wasn't us being attacked, but we were at war and people rally around the leader. 01:22:33.670 --> 01:22:41.490 And so, you know, if there was any chance of Iran liberalizing over time, 01:22:41.670 --> 01:22:43.710 the quickest way to kill it is something like this. 01:22:43.850 --> 01:22:52.510 And even more literally, there was an Iranian leader who was one of the chief 01:22:52.510 --> 01:22:56.870 negotiators in the negotiation with Donald Trump's team, 01:22:57.090 --> 01:23:04.750 who had made some statements last week about how the Iranians wanted a deal, 01:23:04.910 --> 01:23:06.590 and they liked this process, 01:23:06.790 --> 01:23:10.910 and they thought we could get somewhere, and they were willing to put on restrictions 01:23:10.910 --> 01:23:16.170 in exchange for various things, and that these conversations were productive. 01:23:16.770 --> 01:23:23.230 And Donald Trump, on his social media, reposted the statement from this Iranian 01:23:23.230 --> 01:23:26.270 who was just killed by Iran yesterday. 01:23:27.330 --> 01:23:32.870 You know, so one of the people who was actively involved in the negotiations 01:23:32.870 --> 01:23:35.270 with Donald Trump, actually apparently several of them were, 01:23:35.610 --> 01:23:37.930 Donald Trump also tweeted or tweeted, 01:23:38.510 --> 01:23:43.530 truthed, whatever social media he used, basically saying, yeah, 01:23:43.830 --> 01:23:46.310 but he basically said, look, 01:23:46.950 --> 01:23:52.530 you know, we were coming towards a deal, But unfortunately, most of the people 01:23:52.530 --> 01:23:54.130 we were talking to are dead now. 01:23:54.930 --> 01:23:58.930 But Iran can still make a deal if they want to. Let's talk. 01:23:59.510 --> 01:24:01.990 Meanwhile, the Iranians have 01:24:01.990 --> 01:24:05.490 officially said they were supposed to meet again on Sunday this weekend. 01:24:05.790 --> 01:24:07.950 The Iranians are like, yeah, no, that's not happening. 01:24:08.800 --> 01:24:14.340 You know, duh. And I got to believe, like, in addition to like actually destroying 01:24:14.340 --> 01:24:16.780 the things they're destroying and killing the people they're killing, 01:24:17.020 --> 01:24:23.680 that one of Israel's actual explicit goals, if you looked at their planning, 01:24:23.960 --> 01:24:25.540 was to kill these negotiations. 01:24:25.540 --> 01:24:28.600 They had no interest in these negotiations going anywhere. 01:24:28.900 --> 01:24:31.020 My guess is that's exactly right. 01:24:31.520 --> 01:24:36.220 Yeah. And finally, one last thing related to the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump. 01:24:36.380 --> 01:24:41.900 I mentioned that a lot of the initial reporting was that this was a very contentious 01:24:41.900 --> 01:24:46.640 meeting and Donald Trump was like, no, don't do it. And Netanyahu was, 01:24:46.760 --> 01:24:47.840 yeah, we're going to do it. 01:24:48.620 --> 01:24:56.540 And that basically Netanyahu explicitly defied Donald Trump's wishes in order to do that. 01:24:56.800 --> 01:25:02.840 There has been subsequent reporting that says, even though that is what the 01:25:02.840 --> 01:25:06.100 Trump administration is saying publicly, 01:25:07.120 --> 01:25:14.700 that privately, at the actual meeting, they did not express any objections whatsoever 01:25:14.700 --> 01:25:16.580 and, in fact, gave a green light to this. 01:25:17.320 --> 01:25:18.040 Could be. 01:25:18.500 --> 01:25:22.820 Could be. Like, can't trust anything any of these people say. 01:25:23.480 --> 01:25:30.420 Netanyahu and Trump are both liars and disingenuous in all kinds of different areas. 01:25:30.900 --> 01:25:38.340 So there's no reason to trust either of them until you have sort of reports 01:25:38.340 --> 01:25:39.660 from independent third parties. 01:25:39.800 --> 01:25:43.700 And I don't think we have that at all right now. We have sort of Israel saying 01:25:43.700 --> 01:25:45.060 one thing, Trump saying another. 01:25:45.580 --> 01:25:50.240 And the whole notion is that they made a private deal, but publicly agreed to 01:25:50.240 --> 01:25:51.080 say something different. 01:25:51.420 --> 01:25:54.220 And I think part of this was coming out because it was actually, 01:25:54.500 --> 01:25:58.340 the first narrative was looking bad for Donald Trump because it was basically 01:25:58.340 --> 01:26:05.580 like he tried to get Netanyahu to act in a certain way. and Netanyahu told him to go fuck himself. 01:26:05.780 --> 01:26:08.140 And that doesn't make Donald Trump look particularly good. 01:26:08.540 --> 01:26:14.860 So maybe this counter spin here now to try to reframe that in a way that says, 01:26:14.980 --> 01:26:18.920 oh, no, actually, this is once again just Donald Trump playing four-dimensional chess. 01:26:21.700 --> 01:26:26.080 So, I don't know. What do you think of all this, Ed? I know you're scared of 01:26:26.080 --> 01:26:28.400 escalation. Anything else? 01:26:29.960 --> 01:26:35.960 I'm not sure how we prevent it from escalating you know, they flew through Jordan 01:26:35.960 --> 01:26:40.720 Air to get there they threw through Iraqi airspace to get there, 01:26:41.950 --> 01:26:52.090 We're helping Israel to shoot down missiles coming at them, which sounds to 01:26:52.090 --> 01:26:55.930 me like we're participating in some form. 01:26:56.310 --> 01:26:59.550 Well, you know, the model is the last exchange. 01:26:59.850 --> 01:27:04.490 I mean, this is much bigger than the last exchange. But last time around this 01:27:04.490 --> 01:27:08.490 happened, and it wasn't that many months ago. I forget exactly how many again. 01:27:08.730 --> 01:27:13.550 I said last year before, but I don't even know. But it wasn't that long ago. 01:27:14.130 --> 01:27:18.410 You know, there was an Israeli attack on Iran. 01:27:18.610 --> 01:27:20.890 Iran attacked back. There was 01:27:20.890 --> 01:27:23.410 a tit-for-tat, went back and forth a couple times, and then it stopped. 01:27:23.690 --> 01:27:26.990 Because nobody wanted the further escalation. 01:27:27.370 --> 01:27:30.990 You know, so far, the Iranians haven't attacked U.S. 01:27:31.130 --> 01:27:34.730 Interests as part of this back and forth. and last 01:27:34.730 --> 01:27:39.470 time the americans and the jordanians and the british and a whole bunch of others 01:27:39.470 --> 01:27:43.990 were also involved in sort of shooting down the missiles coming from iran towards 01:27:43.990 --> 01:27:49.090 israel so if they are again it's no different than last time yeah uh the the 01:27:49.090 --> 01:27:54.470 difference is only is the scale And can Iran, 01:27:54.490 --> 01:27:56.030 like, 01:27:57.170 --> 01:28:04.990 stop in a way that allows them to save face and not actually destabilize the regime there? 01:28:05.170 --> 01:28:09.770 You know, I said everybody rallies around the flag when the country's attacked, 01:28:09.770 --> 01:28:16.150 but maybe if they look too weak, that changes. 01:28:16.470 --> 01:28:20.510 I don't know. And it also depends, like, it's not over yet. 01:28:21.230 --> 01:28:25.390 How far does this end up going before the Israelis do stop? 01:28:25.770 --> 01:28:29.330 The Iranian government has not been real popular with their people. 01:28:29.750 --> 01:28:39.330 No, and if you remember just a few years back, there was a major sort of youth uprising, 01:28:39.890 --> 01:28:45.310 and especially among women, but of youth in general, rebelling against sort 01:28:45.310 --> 01:28:49.350 of the morality codes and the morality police and such. 01:28:49.350 --> 01:28:52.990 And that got really big for a couple months and then got quashed. 01:28:53.750 --> 01:29:01.290 Violently squashed you know and so has been quiet for a while because people 01:29:01.290 --> 01:29:03.890 were jailed and people were killed and you know. 01:29:04.870 --> 01:29:14.550 And you know repression works you know and so but we'll see but again it's not 01:29:14.550 --> 01:29:20.410 the kind of scenario where that kind of thing flourishes is when it's internal 01:29:20.410 --> 01:29:23.390 like what happened that last time that led to that 01:29:23.750 --> 01:29:33.210 All those demonstrations in the street was video of a prominent case where a 01:29:33.210 --> 01:29:41.910 woman was jailed and then died in jail after having been in public doing things 01:29:41.910 --> 01:29:43.590 the morality police disagreed with. 01:29:43.590 --> 01:29:46.570 And that was 100% internal. 01:29:46.910 --> 01:29:55.010 And I say that with the caveat that I am also 100% sure there were various foreign 01:29:55.010 --> 01:29:59.590 intelligence services egging it on because that happens no matter what. 01:29:59.590 --> 01:30:05.130 But it was basically a grassroots movement internally to Iran on an internal 01:30:05.130 --> 01:30:11.530 issue that, if it had been a little stronger, might have been able to overturn the government. 01:30:11.870 --> 01:30:16.650 It wasn't strong enough. Instead, it was repressed. But with this kind of thing, 01:30:16.770 --> 01:30:23.030 where you have an external attack on the country, that's the kind of thing where people rally around. 01:30:23.030 --> 01:30:30.310 That's not the kind of thing that tends to weaken movements or weaken the people in power. 01:30:30.950 --> 01:30:35.430 Again, there's a tipping point where eventually sometimes governments fall in 01:30:35.430 --> 01:30:36.390 these kinds of situations. 01:30:37.130 --> 01:30:41.150 It doesn't feel like we're there yet. Of course, hell, for all we know, 01:30:41.270 --> 01:30:45.670 by the end of the weekend, Israel will have decapitated the rest of the Iranian government. 01:30:46.690 --> 01:30:48.370 That may be harder to do. 01:30:48.370 --> 01:30:56.910 They killed quite a few generals, apparently, the head generals in the Revolutionary 01:30:56.910 --> 01:30:59.510 Guard, and they killed a bunch of scientists. 01:30:59.770 --> 01:31:06.250 But they did not, so far, go after the country's president, the country's religious 01:31:06.250 --> 01:31:10.070 leader, leaders in the cabinet, things like that. 01:31:10.710 --> 01:31:15.910 Maybe they will. But they sort of have been focusing on the military side, 01:31:16.050 --> 01:31:22.270 although, as always with these kinds of conflicts, there are reports of civilian deaths as well. 01:31:22.410 --> 01:31:26.850 Just because, you know, you go after the scientist living in his apartment building, 01:31:26.850 --> 01:31:30.390 you hit other people in the apartment too. That kind of thing. 01:31:30.950 --> 01:31:35.990 And if nothing else, Israel has shown in Gaza that they don't care one slight 01:31:35.990 --> 01:31:41.290 tiny bit about the civilian death toll that gets in the way of them killing 01:31:41.290 --> 01:31:42.350 the people they want to kill. 01:31:42.900 --> 01:31:48.500 There have been very few wars in history in which there have been fewer civilian 01:31:48.500 --> 01:31:50.300 deaths than military deaths. 01:31:50.600 --> 01:31:55.820 The vast majority of the time, it's been highly skewed towards the civilians. 01:31:56.620 --> 01:32:01.440 And even, especially when you add add-on effects, 01:32:02.000 --> 01:32:06.980 like not just killed directly by weapons, but killed by, you know, 01:32:07.120 --> 01:32:13.860 lack of food or medical care because infrastructure has been destroyed. and that kind of thing. 01:32:14.760 --> 01:32:17.440 Starvation and disease, injury. 01:32:17.720 --> 01:32:22.020 If you break your leg and the system's working, your leg gets fixed. 01:32:22.240 --> 01:32:25.020 You break your leg and the system's not working, you die. 01:32:25.780 --> 01:32:28.580 Right. And, you know, 01:32:29.240 --> 01:32:34.600 the 20th, well, the second half of the 20th century, let's start after World 01:32:34.600 --> 01:32:37.800 War II, because if you include World War I and World War II, 01:32:38.040 --> 01:32:42.760 the net for the 20th century is just as bad as any other century. 01:32:42.900 --> 01:32:51.560 But the second half of the 20th century was much better along those lines than most of history. 01:32:52.940 --> 01:32:54.920 Unfortunately, it seems like we're 01:32:54.920 --> 01:32:58.440 reverting to the mean here and getting back to how things used to be. 01:32:58.560 --> 01:33:03.300 It was better because a large part of it was not only the Marshall Plan, 01:33:03.480 --> 01:33:05.740 but the idea behind the Marshall Plan. 01:33:06.020 --> 01:33:11.040 Is let's get rid of poverty in those countries that lost the war and the other 01:33:11.040 --> 01:33:16.060 countries. Let's rebuild and let's have people, you know, work together. And it worked. 01:33:16.840 --> 01:33:26.340 Yeah. And I mean, the key to the Pax Americana or whatnot after World War II 01:33:26.340 --> 01:33:30.920 was exactly what people keep talking about as the... 01:33:32.210 --> 01:33:38.270 The liberal world order, or whatever they call it, the rules-based world order, 01:33:38.510 --> 01:33:43.650 was that you had a significant portion of the world, and we did have this sort 01:33:43.650 --> 01:33:47.830 of multipolar thing during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, 01:33:47.830 --> 01:33:50.430 and now more with China as well. 01:33:50.430 --> 01:33:58.310 But you had a fundamental international agreement that we were all better off 01:33:58.310 --> 01:34:08.330 if we weren't at war and if we honored treaties and traded with each other and 01:34:08.330 --> 01:34:10.150 developed interdependencies. 01:34:10.150 --> 01:34:16.030 So, you know, hey, we we are so dependent on each other that any war would be 01:34:16.030 --> 01:34:17.850 disastrous for both of us. 01:34:18.810 --> 01:34:25.230 And and then and so you get like the longest period of peace in Europe that 01:34:25.230 --> 01:34:27.970 Europe has seen ever, basically. 01:34:28.370 --> 01:34:29.910 Actually, majority of the world. 01:34:30.690 --> 01:34:32.790 Or at least since the Roman days. 01:34:33.610 --> 01:34:38.030 Yeah, there were small skirmishes going on over the place, but there was no major war. 01:34:38.030 --> 01:34:45.070 And the economy throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and even into the 80s, 01:34:45.150 --> 01:34:46.970 was really cooking along pretty 01:34:46.970 --> 01:34:51.230 well for the people on the bottom and the middle, much better than it had. 01:34:51.670 --> 01:34:54.470 And then gradually that began eroding. 01:34:55.070 --> 01:34:59.390 And, you know, we've kind of gotten away from that concept. 01:34:59.590 --> 01:35:05.090 But, gee, if we are all eating well, then we're all pretty happy, aren't we? 01:35:05.650 --> 01:35:10.650 Right. Like, if you can get everything you need without going to war with anybody, 01:35:10.650 --> 01:35:12.010 then why would you get a war? 01:35:12.530 --> 01:35:16.890 Yeah. Part of the part even of the economy is if you build a tank, 01:35:17.110 --> 01:35:20.270 it costs, say it costs you $10 million to build that tank. 01:35:20.650 --> 01:35:24.530 That tank does not produce any wealth. It doesn't. 01:35:25.200 --> 01:35:29.520 It doesn't make anything. All it does is tear up your roads if it drives down 01:35:29.520 --> 01:35:32.680 them and kills people and destroys wealth. 01:35:32.980 --> 01:35:39.460 If you build 10 semis, those 10 semis produce wealth and more than pay for their cost. 01:35:39.820 --> 01:35:45.200 So anything we put into munitions and warfare is lost to the economy ultimately. 01:35:46.200 --> 01:35:50.760 There's a little boom at the beginning because people are getting to work and 01:35:50.760 --> 01:35:54.800 we're spending money and doing all that. But then later on, you know, 01:35:54.860 --> 01:35:58.300 the factories are failing and everything's going to hell in a handbasket. 01:35:58.960 --> 01:35:59.820 Well, yeah. 01:36:00.180 --> 01:36:01.100 Wars don't produce wealth. 01:36:01.480 --> 01:36:08.900 Well, and here's the thing. That whole post-war order, rules-based international 01:36:08.900 --> 01:36:15.520 order, is the thing that Donald Trump and his people fundamentally don't believe in. 01:36:15.680 --> 01:36:18.940 They think it was bad. Of course they don't. 01:36:18.940 --> 01:36:24.100 Because they believe in an oligarchy in which, you know, he wants to be a king, 01:36:24.100 --> 01:36:30.460 and that concept doesn't support, it supports liberal democracies. 01:36:30.800 --> 01:36:36.740 It does not support oligarchies. And it supports, like, the whole notion of, 01:36:36.860 --> 01:36:39.880 it's fundamentally built on the idea of cooperation. 01:36:40.980 --> 01:36:45.520 And that's just a completely alien concept to Mr. Trump. 01:36:46.220 --> 01:36:50.000 And so, yeah, he's hell bent on tearing down that order, 01:36:50.360 --> 01:36:57.420 regardless of the fact that that actually led to all kinds of improvements for 01:36:57.420 --> 01:37:03.340 the world in terms of, you know, reducing the, it doesn't solve everything. 01:37:04.040 --> 01:37:07.460 Certain people still got screwed. Certain people still benefited. 01:37:08.400 --> 01:37:15.980 But all in all, it was a net positive for the world over what had existed before. 01:37:16.940 --> 01:37:18.460 And what exists now. 01:37:18.700 --> 01:37:25.940 And it provided all kinds of protections that may not have avoided every negative option. 01:37:26.240 --> 01:37:28.900 Hell no. All kinds of bad things still happened every day. 01:37:29.240 --> 01:37:32.940 But it guarded against the worst options. 01:37:33.620 --> 01:37:38.040 And now he just wants to remove all those protections and, you know, 01:37:38.120 --> 01:37:39.260 to hell with it. Let's go. 01:37:39.660 --> 01:37:46.080 You know, if Russia wants to, like, take over Ukraine, so be it. 01:37:46.120 --> 01:37:47.420 It's in their sphere of interest. 01:37:47.920 --> 01:37:53.260 I'm sure the same thing would apply, like, you know, China wants to take back 01:37:53.260 --> 01:37:56.360 Taiwan, you know, or for that matter, U.S. 01:37:56.640 --> 01:37:59.120 Wants to take Greenland and Panama, you know. 01:38:01.020 --> 01:38:04.460 You know it's it's all the same thing it's like you 01:38:04.460 --> 01:38:07.580 know if we want to why can't we and if we can then 01:38:07.580 --> 01:38:12.440 of course they can on the things they care about so uh 01:38:12.440 --> 01:38:17.860 yeah so we'll see i i think donald trump may actually be a little bit annoyed 01:38:17.860 --> 01:38:21.700 at this iran thing because like i said he wanted to make a deal he wanted to 01:38:21.700 --> 01:38:28.940 get his nobel peace prize but but in the end you know i think his general philosophy 01:38:28.940 --> 01:38:32.240 is going to be to wash his hands of it and be like, well, 01:38:32.420 --> 01:38:36.440 if they want to go at it, that's their business, not ours. 01:38:37.420 --> 01:38:43.180 And, you know, I mean, we are defending Israel right now because there's a significant 01:38:43.180 --> 01:38:47.800 portion of, you know, both parties in the U.S. 01:38:47.920 --> 01:38:53.120 Actually, who would be absolutely apoplectic if the U.S. didn't. 01:38:55.240 --> 01:39:01.320 But yeah, I could easily see him saying, you know, you guys want to have a little war? Have fun. 01:39:01.760 --> 01:39:06.500 You know, that brings up an interesting... How is it that we have changed anti-Semitism, 01:39:06.900 --> 01:39:12.420 which is hatred of Jews, to being hatred of Israel's anti-Semitism? 01:39:13.400 --> 01:39:21.400 If I hate Italy, does that mean I'm anti-voke because he lives in Italy? For God's sake, no. 01:39:21.980 --> 01:39:28.600 You know, the Israeli government has not been a decent government for a long time now. 01:39:29.480 --> 01:39:31.820 That has nothing to do with the Jewish faith. 01:39:31.920 --> 01:39:38.600 I mean, I certainly think that conservative Israelis have been intentionally 01:39:38.600 --> 01:39:45.040 muddying that line. And the Trump administration has been intentionally muddying that line as well. 01:39:45.280 --> 01:39:51.420 And going further than that, saying that being pro-Palestinian is automatically 01:39:51.420 --> 01:39:53.000 anti-Semitic, essentially. 01:39:53.360 --> 01:39:58.200 Even if you're just expressing sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people. 01:39:59.360 --> 01:40:06.260 If you do that incorrectly, then you're clearly anti-Semitic. 01:40:06.260 --> 01:40:15.620 There was an interview I saw part of just earlier today with Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah. 01:40:16.220 --> 01:40:19.640 I think Jon Stewart was on Trevor Noah's podcast or whatever. 01:40:19.840 --> 01:40:23.300 And they talked about a bunch of things. But the clip I saw was specifically 01:40:23.300 --> 01:40:32.600 about John Stewart and how he feels about, as a non-religious Jew in America, 01:40:33.060 --> 01:40:44.440 how he feels about the notion of Israel and how they are positioning all of 01:40:44.440 --> 01:40:50.520 this and how they are positioning the notion that not only that. 01:40:51.110 --> 01:40:58.590 In order for a people to feel secure, they have to have an ethnically based homeland. 01:40:59.150 --> 01:41:03.410 And how he thought that idea in and of itself was pernicious. 01:41:03.690 --> 01:41:06.990 And you can understand how Israel 01:41:06.990 --> 01:41:10.930 got there, especially in the wake of the Holocaust and World War II. 01:41:11.210 --> 01:41:17.690 But, and a long history of being driven out of places that were their home, right? 01:41:17.810 --> 01:41:22.690 You can understand why a Zionist movement existed along those lines. 01:41:22.910 --> 01:41:32.730 But he talked about how he felt like the notion that this homeland had to exist 01:41:32.730 --> 01:41:36.350 in a certain way, and that's the only way that Jews could be safe, 01:41:36.550 --> 01:41:39.770 was harmful in and of itself because 01:41:39.770 --> 01:41:43.350 it required you to dehumanize other 01:41:43.350 --> 01:41:47.410 people like the palestinians um and 01:41:47.410 --> 01:41:50.250 i i i honestly i what we're 01:41:50.250 --> 01:41:53.830 seeing is a backlash against the 01:41:53.830 --> 01:41:57.150 movement away like nation states 01:41:57.150 --> 01:42:03.290 only developed a couple centuries ago you know before that century you know 01:42:03.290 --> 01:42:08.410 countries were a lot more fluid and a lot more based on like who was king and 01:42:08.410 --> 01:42:13.670 what areas could they control and very often controlled areas that were a patchwork 01:42:13.670 --> 01:42:16.170 of languages and cultures and stuff like that, 01:42:16.390 --> 01:42:23.990 the nation state as we know it today that's really a culturally homogenous and 01:42:23.990 --> 01:42:30.330 racially homogenous group that comes together as a country as well, 01:42:30.550 --> 01:42:36.750 is not that old as a notion of the norm of things being. 01:42:37.010 --> 01:42:43.030 But I think a lot of what we're seeing now is a backlash to that starting to erode. 01:42:43.030 --> 01:42:49.070 The United States actually being the prime example in the world of a country 01:42:49.070 --> 01:42:53.210 that was not founded and based that way. 01:42:53.330 --> 01:42:57.330 It was not, we are a single culture, we are a single religion, 01:42:57.330 --> 01:42:58.690 we are a single ethnicity. 01:42:58.690 --> 01:43:02.570 Instead it was founded on a 01:43:02.570 --> 01:43:06.990 set of principles and ideas instead and and 01:43:06.990 --> 01:43:10.750 for most of its history was wide 01:43:10.750 --> 01:43:16.730 open welcoming of immigrants from all over the world and then we started shutting 01:43:16.730 --> 01:43:20.450 down immigration from china and then we started shutting down immigration from 01:43:20.450 --> 01:43:24.150 other places and then you know and of course there's a whole fraught history 01:43:24.150 --> 01:43:27.850 of the slave trade but you know in theory, 01:43:28.090 --> 01:43:30.710 we were based on ideas and welcomed all kinds of people. 01:43:30.870 --> 01:43:35.450 And there was the whole idea of the melting pot and all of this kind of stuff. And. 01:43:36.310 --> 01:43:40.850 We also had a lot of other places in the country where, not the country, 01:43:40.970 --> 01:43:45.470 in the world, where migration was getting more active. 01:43:45.890 --> 01:43:49.150 And a lot of these things were being broken down. 01:43:49.350 --> 01:43:53.230 I mean, another big example is the UK. after 01:43:53.230 --> 01:43:56.950 you after britain started 01:43:56.950 --> 01:44:00.030 losing first gained their huge empire and then 01:44:00.030 --> 01:44:02.970 started losing it but had a 01:44:02.970 --> 01:44:06.010 policy of for many parts 01:44:06.010 --> 01:44:09.310 of the empire people could come to the homeland and 01:44:09.310 --> 01:44:15.870 come move to the uk and particularly lots of people from india and pakistan 01:44:15.870 --> 01:44:22.510 the the characteristic makeup of Britain is significantly different than it 01:44:22.510 --> 01:44:28.550 was 50 or 100 years ago because of immigration and from other places in the empire. 01:44:28.830 --> 01:44:32.970 And other places in Europe have seen the same thing. And Germany was letting 01:44:32.970 --> 01:44:36.670 in Syrian refugees and, you know, all kinds of stuff. 01:44:36.850 --> 01:44:42.810 And I think we're seeing a backlash to that where all over the world people 01:44:42.810 --> 01:44:46.410 are saying, you know, no, Hungary is for Hungarians. 01:44:47.070 --> 01:44:51.170 France is for French people. Italy is for Italians, you know, et cetera. 01:44:51.490 --> 01:44:57.770 And trying to get back to sort of these more ethnically pure memories of a long time ago. 01:44:59.990 --> 01:45:04.370 And Trumpism and Millerism and the stuff in the U.S. 01:45:04.570 --> 01:45:08.850 Is an extension of that where, you know, like we said, he's longing for the 01:45:08.850 --> 01:45:13.030 1890s, you know, in terms of how the country was made up. 01:45:13.710 --> 01:45:19.050 And, you know, even though his own family immigrated since the 1890s, 01:45:19.110 --> 01:45:22.870 to be clear, you know, but anyway. 01:45:23.470 --> 01:45:26.470 His ancestry is not all that pure, is it? 01:45:27.580 --> 01:45:34.480 Yeah, well, one of the things that the German chancellor did that was, 01:45:34.700 --> 01:45:38.020 you know, I think we mentioned on the show the whole thing about, 01:45:38.200 --> 01:45:40.720 you know, him pointing out that, no, 01:45:41.160 --> 01:45:46.880 the defeat of Germany was not seen as a sad day in Germany because it was when 01:45:46.880 --> 01:45:49.000 they were liberated from the Nazi dictatorship. 01:45:49.480 --> 01:45:57.480 But also, the German chancellor brought Donald Trump the original of his grandfather's 01:45:57.580 --> 01:46:03.700 birth certificate from Germany and presented it framed and, you know, all nice to him. 01:46:03.900 --> 01:46:09.300 But the subtext of that is, your family are immigrants too, Donald Trump. 01:46:10.720 --> 01:46:11.320 Yeah. 01:46:11.320 --> 01:46:12.740 And not that long ago. 01:46:13.100 --> 01:46:15.900 An immigrant whorehouse owner, as I recall. 01:46:16.520 --> 01:46:24.400 Yes. Yes. And draft dodger. He moved to the U.S. Because of the draft. 01:46:24.960 --> 01:46:29.220 Well, no, the second time. Well, yeah, he moved because of the draft. 01:46:29.680 --> 01:46:32.860 He did not want to be drafted into the German military. 01:46:33.180 --> 01:46:38.760 And I think this was pre-World War I, if I'm remembering my timelines correctly. 01:46:38.960 --> 01:46:43.180 But he didn't want to be drafted into the German military. So he came to the U.S. 01:46:43.300 --> 01:46:48.600 He tried to make his fortune in the California gold rush or some such, 01:46:49.760 --> 01:46:52.100 or the Alaskan gold. I forget. 01:46:52.680 --> 01:46:58.800 You can look him up on it. Anyway, it was Alaska. He was trying to make his money from gold. 01:46:59.060 --> 01:47:04.920 He failed at that. So instead he opened the whorehouse and he got rich doing that. 01:47:05.140 --> 01:47:08.200 And that was the beginning of the Donald Trump fortune. 01:47:10.260 --> 01:47:14.400 Very few of the gold miners got rich. It was guys who ran the grocery stores 01:47:14.400 --> 01:47:16.380 and the whorehouses that got rich. 01:47:16.820 --> 01:47:23.060 Yes. Yes. And the traders who would buy the gold from the miners and then sell 01:47:23.060 --> 01:47:25.340 them to other people. And, you know, yes. 01:47:26.100 --> 01:47:30.220 As usual, the people on the ground aren't usually the ones who make the money in the end. 01:47:31.420 --> 01:47:32.740 Well, we're getting off topic. 01:47:33.060 --> 01:47:36.700 Anyway, anyway. And then he tried to go back to Germany and the Germans wouldn't 01:47:36.700 --> 01:47:40.320 let him back in because he was a draft dodger and sent him back to the U.S. 01:47:42.340 --> 01:47:46.200 Anyway, we were talking about Iran, weren't we? How did we get to that? 01:47:46.840 --> 01:47:49.700 I don't know. I think we're about done. 01:47:49.980 --> 01:47:57.520 Yeah, I agree. Let's wrap it up. Okay. Thanks for joining us at Curmudgeons Corner once again. 01:47:58.120 --> 01:48:05.240 You can go to Curmudgeons-Corner.com to find all the stuff, all the ways to 01:48:05.240 --> 01:48:11.800 talk to us, our archive of shows, transcripts of recent shows, all of that fun stuff. 01:48:11.800 --> 01:48:15.980 You can also go to our Patreon to give us money at various levels. 01:48:16.780 --> 01:48:22.840 You can get a, us mentioning on your, it is getting towards the end of the show. 01:48:22.940 --> 01:48:27.020 You can tell because I start flubbing my lines even more than usual. 01:48:27.900 --> 01:48:32.460 You can get us mentioning you on the show. You can get us ringing the bell. You can get a postcard. 01:48:32.580 --> 01:48:36.460 You can get a mug like, like Ed has in front of him at this very moment. 01:48:37.000 --> 01:48:39.960 Well, not like that one. That's a special one-off just for Ed, 01:48:40.040 --> 01:48:42.400 but you can get our regular curmudgeons corner mugs. 01:48:43.340 --> 01:48:46.220 And, and yeah, what else? Oh, yes. 01:48:46.780 --> 01:48:51.160 At $2 a month or more, or if you just ask us, you can be invited to the Curmudgeon's 01:48:51.160 --> 01:48:52.960 Corner Slack, where Yvonne, 01:48:53.300 --> 01:48:58.720 Ed, myself, and various other people are throughout the week chatting, 01:48:59.020 --> 01:49:01.880 sharing links, all kinds of stuff. 01:49:02.640 --> 01:49:06.280 So, Ed, do you have something from the Curmudgeon's Corner Slack that you would 01:49:06.280 --> 01:49:08.500 like to highlight, or should I pick something? 01:49:08.500 --> 01:49:12.100 I figured you're going to ask that, so I went back and reviewed, 01:49:12.260 --> 01:49:17.980 and we had a fascinating discussion from one of the members who had received 01:49:17.980 --> 01:49:22.700 an advertisement for a prepaid cremation. 01:49:23.380 --> 01:49:23.940 Right. 01:49:23.940 --> 01:49:30.500 And we all discussed the advantages, and I pointed out that I'm anticipating 01:49:30.500 --> 01:49:35.420 being cremated because I think it'll prepare me for the afterlife if there is one. 01:49:37.600 --> 01:49:40.980 And another one of the members proposed that composting 01:49:40.980 --> 01:49:46.000 is the best way to go but composting is expensive and it's not available everywhere 01:49:46.000 --> 01:49:51.480 so my wife and i are going to probably go we're going to end up in the there's 01:49:51.480 --> 01:49:57.840 a veteran cemetery at washington's crossing where washington crossed the delaware and i'm very familiar. 01:49:57.840 --> 01:49:58.940 With the place i used to live. 01:49:58.940 --> 01:50:05.280 We'll end up in there in the in some ashes from us okay i was anyway nice. 01:50:05.280 --> 01:50:06.380 But i'm not sure that. 01:50:06.380 --> 01:50:07.720 It's nice. 01:50:07.720 --> 01:50:12.120 Per se i would rather see you in this form than that but you. 01:50:12.120 --> 01:50:14.520 Know hey what the hell but. 01:50:14.520 --> 01:50:19.880 Under the circumstances when you think of the various things to to do yeah i 01:50:19.880 --> 01:50:22.960 mean i i don't know i i'm one like, 01:50:23.850 --> 01:50:28.130 I've thought for the most part, like, I'm not going to be there. 01:50:28.130 --> 01:50:32.410 So whatever works for my family, you know, that's exactly right. 01:50:32.550 --> 01:50:32.630 Yeah. 01:50:33.350 --> 01:50:39.350 And like, I, yeah, I don't have too strong opinions. I guess I feel like it 01:50:39.350 --> 01:50:45.510 would be nice to have some sort of physical place where family could go to remember you. 01:50:45.550 --> 01:50:51.510 But then I also think, well, realistically, you know, people don't actually 01:50:51.510 --> 01:50:55.650 visit those spots all that often. they can remember me from anywhere. 01:50:57.190 --> 01:51:02.890 My mother's family has a plot in Vermont that's up on a hill. 01:51:03.070 --> 01:51:10.090 It's a cemetery up in a hill outside of a very, very small town that has a great 01:51:10.090 --> 01:51:13.470 view and has generations of people there. 01:51:13.830 --> 01:51:18.950 My mother has indicated that's where she wants her ashes when she goes eventually, 01:51:19.090 --> 01:51:20.270 hopefully not anytime soon. 01:51:20.410 --> 01:51:22.610 She's doing really well, by the way, for anyone who cares. 01:51:23.090 --> 01:51:26.610 She hasn't cleared to drive yet, but everything else seems fine at this point. 01:51:26.830 --> 01:51:32.650 They're waiting for the numbers representing the pressure in her skull or the 01:51:32.650 --> 01:51:35.210 amount of fluid in her skull to get down below a certain level. 01:51:35.330 --> 01:51:40.630 It's way down from where it was, but not at whatever level their goal is. 01:51:40.810 --> 01:51:42.610 So they're just watching it for another month. 01:51:42.810 --> 01:51:45.870 Anyway, she wants to be there. And I've thought a few times, 01:51:46.050 --> 01:51:47.950 you know, I like that place too. 01:51:48.070 --> 01:51:51.190 I've visited it a couple of times. It's very nice, very calm, 01:51:51.430 --> 01:51:54.410 nice view, blah, blah, blah. I wouldn't mind being there too. 01:51:54.630 --> 01:51:58.670 But then I also think my family lives in Seattle. 01:51:59.130 --> 01:52:02.370 You know, why would I put that in Vermont? 01:52:02.990 --> 01:52:07.350 Like they would never ever go, you know? 01:52:07.610 --> 01:52:14.310 But, you know, I don't know. But for the most part, I think the answer is whatever works for my family. 01:52:14.590 --> 01:52:18.970 You know, I won't be there. You know, you guys decide what works for you. 01:52:19.530 --> 01:52:22.630 And, you know, there are people who do all kinds of weird things like, 01:52:22.770 --> 01:52:28.790 you know, have the ashes baked into some sort of object they keep with them, you know, do, you know. 01:52:29.630 --> 01:52:36.810 All kinds of stuff that I've seen people consider or do. That seems a little over the top to me. 01:52:37.070 --> 01:52:41.970 I mean, what was it? Jeremy Bentham, the famous philosopher who just had himself 01:52:41.970 --> 01:52:47.170 stuffed and you can still visit him in a cabinet at the University of Oxford or something. 01:52:47.370 --> 01:52:48.650 Oxford and Cambridge is one of those. 01:52:49.450 --> 01:52:56.810 Was it Bentham? Now I have to check. Jeremy. Of course, I can't spell it. 01:52:58.830 --> 01:53:03.610 Jeremy Bentham Body. Oh, yes it is. There's pictures of him. 01:53:05.690 --> 01:53:07.310 Let's see. It's at, 01:53:08.770 --> 01:53:11.870 Okay, here we go. I have to read this summary. 01:53:12.910 --> 01:53:20.170 Yes, if you just Google Jeremy Bentham's body, you will immediately find pictures of him. 01:53:20.410 --> 01:53:29.450 He is on display at the Student Center at UCL, which is what, 01:53:29.890 --> 01:53:31.790 University of Central London, something like that? 01:53:32.490 --> 01:53:38.470 I have to check that too. University College of League? University College London. 01:53:38.850 --> 01:53:39.830 University College London. 01:53:40.710 --> 01:53:49.130 And he is stuffed and on display in a glass case in the student center at University College London. 01:53:49.130 --> 01:53:53.070 I would never do that to my future generations. 01:53:54.070 --> 01:53:58.230 This was his specific request that this is what would be done with him. 01:53:58.350 --> 01:54:01.890 And they have honored him. And you can go visit him to this day. 01:54:02.850 --> 01:54:07.070 Well, our intent has been to make things as easy as possible for the kids. 01:54:07.370 --> 01:54:12.210 So we've actually prepaid everything with the locals' mortuary here. 01:54:12.630 --> 01:54:15.950 So all they need to do is call them, they come pick up the body, 01:54:16.090 --> 01:54:20.490 burn it, and then they can take it on up to Washington Crossing, 01:54:21.010 --> 01:54:23.570 which is only about 25, 30 miles from here. 01:54:24.310 --> 01:54:31.050 So a quick additional note on Jeremy Bentham. They note that what is in display 01:54:31.050 --> 01:54:36.330 is his stuffed body, but a wax head of him. 01:54:36.650 --> 01:54:43.730 And the reason is, here's a section, I'm on Londonist.com. What about his head? 01:54:43.990 --> 01:54:49.270 While the skeletal remains and wax head of Bentham remain in the student center, 01:54:49.510 --> 01:54:55.130 his actual head remains out of public view elsewhere at UCL. 01:54:55.130 --> 01:55:01.190 The head was once stolen in a prank by students from the rival King's College 01:55:01.190 --> 01:55:06.550 and has ever since been kept under lock and key. 01:55:06.770 --> 01:55:11.470 And they do also have a picture of the head along with the picture of his body on display. 01:55:12.190 --> 01:55:18.470 So, Jesus, we say in his public forum, don't do that to me, please. 01:55:19.670 --> 01:55:24.490 Yes. For all members of Ed's family who are listening, he does not want to be 01:55:24.490 --> 01:55:27.590 on public display in stuffed form. 01:55:29.590 --> 01:55:34.370 Okay. Well, I guess that clearly indicates the end of the show. 01:55:34.750 --> 01:55:38.070 So thank you once again for joining us, Ed. It's always fun to have you. 01:55:39.060 --> 01:55:41.500 And it's always fun to be here. I always enjoy it. 01:55:42.280 --> 01:55:46.540 Okay, so everybody, we expect to have Yvonne back next week. 01:55:46.820 --> 01:55:49.980 Ed and I, I think, are both going to try to go to one of these rallies. 01:55:49.980 --> 01:55:54.120 If I succeed in going, which in part depends on how the rest of my day goes, 01:55:54.480 --> 01:55:59.140 then I will report on it next week on the show. Yvonne should be back, hopefully. 01:55:59.480 --> 01:56:03.280 Or he was only here because our schedules didn't align. So hopefully there won't 01:56:03.280 --> 01:56:04.340 be any problem next week. 01:56:04.700 --> 01:56:09.740 And so we'll have a normal show next week. and so everybody stay safe have fun 01:56:09.740 --> 01:56:15.820 all of that stuff i usually say yeah goodbye all right goodbye, 01:56:41.980 --> 01:56:44.780 Wait, Tang, up until I tell you. 01:56:45.480 --> 01:56:48.000 I've got about 2% more of the battery left. 01:56:49.400 --> 01:56:51.340 Okay, let's get this done then. 01:56:53.660 --> 01:56:55.800 I assume that's your son behind you. 01:56:56.340 --> 01:56:57.960 Yes, yes, that is. 01:56:58.480 --> 01:56:59.300 Hello, Alex. 01:56:59.740 --> 01:57:04.460 He can't hear you, but Ed says hello, Alex, because you're on my headphones. 01:57:04.460 --> 01:57:13.920 But, okay, I'm hitting stop, Ed, wait until it says 100% uploaded before you 01:57:13.920 --> 01:57:18.760 actually hang up or close out or whatever. Okay, here we go. Hitting stop.