Ivan: All right okay ready okay.
Sam: Shall uh shall we just uh go then yeah okay here it comes love Blah,
Sam: blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Sam: Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, July 5th, 2025.
Sam: It's just after 16 UTC as we're starting to record. I'm Sam Inter,
Sam: Yvonne Bowes here. Hello, Yvonne.
Ivan: Hi. You know, we were supposed to do this together this week. That was my plan.
Sam: We had thought about doing this in person, like right before or right after
Sam: the meetup or something. But unfortunately, yes, what happened, Yvonne?
Ivan: Uh, I will say that now, with all the facts in front of me, after what happened, it's clearly my fault.
Sam: Oh, no. What happened?
Ivan: Well, sometime late last year, during one of our last trips,
Ivan: I had noticed that Manu's and anybody on YouTube can see,
Ivan: use the Solo Beats headphones that he had gotten many years ago.
Ivan: And I say he had gotten because he had gotten to be, as my son closes the door
Ivan: on me because I'm bothering him,
Ivan: You know, he liked to travel, but he liked to use his iPad, and you can't really
Ivan: be traveling on an airplane without the headphones, okay?
Sam: For the sound on the iPad.
Ivan: Right, exactly. And so, you know, it bothers the other passengers.
Ivan: It's actually, you know, they do have, you know, some rules related to that
Ivan: that said, you know, on the airlines that you can't, you know,
Ivan: just be blasting stuff, okay?
Sam: Right.
Ivan: So, you know, I was like trying to get him to use headphones.
Ivan: I'd been struggling to get him to use headphones.
Ivan: Part of the reason is that my son, who has autism, doesn't have a lot of sensory issues.
Ivan: But the one that he has is stuff.
Ivan: No, no, no.
Ivan: Stuff touching his earlobes or ear.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: It's not the sound. He has no
Ivan: problem with the sound. Blast music all you want. Go to a party, whatever.
Ivan: It's the actual physical sensation against the ear itself, which also manifests
Ivan: itself as we had struggled to get him to learn to swim.
Ivan: Because any time that one of the parts about learning to swim is to dunk your
Ivan: head underwater, that was always something excruciating for him.
Ivan: Okay? Always was a problem.
Ivan: We've gotten to learn to swim. And, you know, the thing is that the biggest
Ivan: thing about him learning to swim wasn't, hey, I don't want him to be a competition swimmer.
Ivan: I just want to make sure that if he falls in the water, since we have so much
Ivan: in Florida, that he can get out.
Sam: Right. It would be safe.
Ivan: Yes. And that was the main goal. As he learned to swim, basically his entire
Ivan: thing, you could see that his main mission was to keep his head above the water itself. which is.
Sam: Which is a reasonable.
Ivan: Mission which is a reasonable thing by the way when you're swimming as
Ivan: well by the way okay you know so that's not exactly that
Ivan: bad but it also manifested itself with headphones
Ivan: where he had been refusing to you know he had been but one
Ivan: day like years ago as i'm trying to get him to shop for headphones that actually
Ivan: was at the apple store about something else they'd been doing a demo of the
Ivan: the solo beats headphones and he went and ambled over to the table where they
Ivan: were doing the demo of this music app and whatnot and handing out people headphones.
Ivan: And lo and behold, he grabbed the headphones and he put them on and he put them
Ivan: on and he stayed there playing and listen, you know, watching the demonstration
Ivan: for a while. And I'm like, OK, how much are these three hundred something dollars sold?
Ivan: OK, I was like, I don't care what the fuck's the price I had.
Ivan: But I had been struggling to get him to wear any headphones up until then.
Ivan: I'm like, you know, they could have literally the guy could have told me, oh, it's $1,500.
Ivan: And I would have been like, okay, fine. Pack them up.
Ivan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so, you know, we got those and he's used them now for a long time.
Ivan: The, the, the problem is that I had noticed one of the last trips is that the,
Ivan: the, the cushions had started to break and flake.
Sam: Yeah, yeah.
Ivan: So, I was like, look, I'll just get them new headphones. All right?
Ivan: So, I got them these that are beat solo, but they're not, they actually are very different. Okay?
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: The cushions are not, they are really different.
Sam: It's like a new model or something. So, they changed a bunch of stuff.
Ivan: All right. Well, look, I didn't realize this.
Sam: And so, they weren't his headphones.
Ivan: So I didn't realize this was an, I didn't think that this was an issue because
Ivan: I had actually, when I got on them, I, I, I, I, he, he had them in his desk.
Ivan: I think he warmed for a little bit. And then I was like, ah, it's fine.
Ivan: Well, look, well, we're heading to the airport. Well, we had left for the airport very early.
Ivan: He got very sad and he started complaining about the headphones on the way to the airport.
Ivan: So I decided to try to go back to get the, all right, go get the white headphones.
Sam: The right headphones. At least you hadn't thrown them away. No, no.
Ivan: I hadn't thrown them away. Which, yeah, I mean, I had thought about that, but no, I did not.
Ivan: So, well, actually, we had forgotten about three things. We had forgotten the...
Ivan: Well, he... First, he said about the headphones, and I'm like,
Ivan: no, no, no, we got the new headphones.
Ivan: No, we won't. And then he realized he didn't put on his Apple Watch.
Ivan: Now, was more important because look
Ivan: if he gets lost like you can find
Ivan: him and i'm like you know he doesn't like
Ivan: carrying his phone in his pocket it really like you know and i'm like fuck no
Ivan: we need to go and but we left early enough that we could do this and then my
Ivan: wife forgot this little thing for emotion sickness that she uses as well i'm
Ivan: like fuck well well that's the reason we'd been ready very early. We had left super early.
Ivan: We could turn around. We can get all this shit. Okay?
Ivan: But the moment that we got on the plane, because the last time we flew at night,
Ivan: we wound up being downgraded into coach on this airplane in an overnight flight.
Ivan: And I must admit that Manu got really tired and cranky near the end of that
Ivan: flight when we were coming from the West Coast.
Ivan: So I said, well, let's not do that again. And I splurged, I bumped us into first
Ivan: class, you know, because they wouldn't give me a free upgrade because there's
Ivan: only like, they'll only give you like, for example, like me and a companion.
Ivan: But if it's three of you, no.
Ivan: No, we're not going to give you three upgrades. Okay? We'll give you two.
Ivan: But the problem is if you're in a group of three, they won't even put you on
Ivan: the upgrade list. So I have to pay.
Ivan: I'm like, look, I'll pay for the damn upgrade. Just put us, you know,
Ivan: I don't want to deal with this.
Ivan: It's a flight that leaves at eight o'clock. It's going to get there at local
Ivan: time over here to something in the morning.
Ivan: You know, you know, it's let's just, you know.
Ivan: So we sit down and Manu starts after a little bit, starts getting really nervous
Ivan: about these headphones being around.
Ivan: He doesn't want it because I said, well, look, you'll use you'll use the white
Ivan: horse a little bit and you'll try the blue ones.
Ivan: I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. I need to. I'm afraid.
Ivan: I need to get off this plane. I need to get off this plane. I need to get off
Ivan: this plane. I need to get off this plane.
Ivan: This was right after we boarded. We had sat down. We had had to. Yeah.
Sam: Right, right, right, right. But even though you got the headphones you want,
Sam: it was because you still had the other ones? Because you might make him use them.
Ivan: Yes. And I hadn't really thought that it was that bad.
Ivan: The thing is that at the moment, he wasn't saying it was about the headphones.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: He just said, I'm afraid. I need to get off this plane. I'm scared.
Ivan: Crew tried to settle him down. Captain tried to settle him down.
Ivan: Had him sit down in the cockpit and everything.
Ivan: And, but look, he went out on the jetway and he was like, no.
Ivan: And, you know, we tried, my wife tried arguing with him. She didn't understand
Ivan: what the hell was going on because I was the one that was sitting right beside him.
Ivan: But I could see how, look, how afraid and how upset he was. And I told her,
Ivan: look, man, we're not going anywhere. This is not happening.
Ivan: This is just not happening. And so, you know, so we, customer service agent
Ivan: came up and asked, so what's the deal? What are we doing? I'm not going.
Ivan: So I walked back out and thankfully American, well, given that I'm a good customer,
Ivan: went and they canceled the, canceled the, canceled my segments.
Ivan: And if you cancel them right before departure, then you get your trip credit.
Ivan: You get everything back as a trip credit.
Ivan: So I did not lose any of that. And I did manage to call Marriott.
Ivan: And also, even though I was well past the cancellation, they did cancel the
Ivan: hotel in Seattle and everything.
Ivan: So Manu, it took a while for him to calm down from this because,
Ivan: well, in part, he was very upset with himself that he didn't fly because he likes to fly.
Sam: Right. But the one good thing out of this story is you have determined that
Sam: it is not a permanent fear of flying.
Sam: Because, you know, I know that was a concern when this started.
Ivan: But no, it's not a fear of flying. He was actually very upset that he couldn't
Ivan: fly. He was very hard on himself later.
Ivan: I made a mistake.
Ivan: He was being super hard on himself.
Ivan: Then after he calmed down and they explained to me, I said, Manu,
Ivan: is it just about, was it just because of the headphones? Yes.
Ivan: So, well, okay, so good news. So I'm working.
Ivan: One of the things about this is that in order for many of these things with
Ivan: him, and this is for anybody, you know, a child with autism,
Ivan: in order to condition him to these things, One of the things that you do is
Ivan: you try to condition them to the device or whatever,
Ivan: taking some time in order for them to get used to it with some time.
Ivan: And so I'm working on that right now with him where he is actually.
Ivan: And I think he may have gotten not used to not. I don't know.
Ivan: He's really very fond of these headphones.
Ivan: So first thing is I did manage. Well, a friend of mine actually managed to find
Ivan: where they sell the little cushion replacements.
Ivan: So I'm getting those because these headphones are actually fine. It's just the cushions.
Ivan: So I managed to see a place where they sell those. And then what we're working
Ivan: is on some just conditioning where he is using them for a few minutes every day.
Ivan: He is touching the blue ones every day. He's working on them,
Ivan: which is something that I've done before with other things. And over time,
Ivan: he gets used to it and that fear goes away. But it does take time to do that.
Ivan: And I have not done that with the I didn't really think that the thing is that with Manu,
Ivan: it's so rare that he it that he gets like that over things that I just you know
Ivan: what? Didn't think about it.
Ivan: and so um so that goes on me
Ivan: because i should have known given
Ivan: how difficult it was for him to use headphones in the first place
Ivan: that's just changing out the headphones but but again you know i don't know
Ivan: man i got him a new tv i got him a new computer i got this stuff none of that
Ivan: was a big deal and he was fine yes right you know fine even for the most part you know It's like,
Ivan: but, but, but the thing is that he is really, you know, he has very few sensory
Ivan: issues, but the one that he does have that he's always had is related to the ears.
Ivan: And so it's something that you need to, you know.
Ivan: You know, us parents with children with autism are things that you have to be
Ivan: cognizant of these things and to deal with them in the best way possible.
Ivan: The one way that I've done this before with other items that Manu was scared
Ivan: of, there's a few items that he was scared of, like the hair trimmer.
Ivan: So I basically bought a hair trimmer and I left it in his room until he stopped
Ivan: being scared of it, around it.
Ivan: And then I started just trimming his hair a little bit at home and he would
Ivan: let me do it and he would touch it 30 seconds or whatever.
Ivan: But over time, over months, months and months, now he's like comfortable with a trimmer.
Ivan: or the hair or nail clippers for some reason. That's also one that he was scared of. Same thing.
Ivan: So, but it's, it's the, it's the little things that you have to have a tactic to, uh, to deal with.
Ivan: So bottom line, what my wife,
Ivan: She's in Vancouver. Look, she was going to an event. She was going to a convention in Vancouver.
Ivan: We were going, you know, the whole thing, my idea was, hey, well,
Ivan: Seattle and Vancouver are relatively close.
Ivan: Why don't I go to Seattle for a little bit, see Sam, we drive up,
Ivan: had a rental car, go to Vancouver, and then fly back from Vancouver.
Ivan: Well, I managed because I did get our tickets refunded and whatever and whatnot.
Ivan: Well, I put her on a plane to Vancouver on Thursday because one thing is that
Ivan: I wasn't sure. Now, Manu has promised me right now that if I fix the white headphones,
Ivan: he will get back on an airplane.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: He said that's no problem and actually has been asking, where can we go?
Ivan: And I'm like, look, we're not going to go right now.
Ivan: I do have the flight credits. I have tickets paid for. So it's not like it's
Ivan: that big a deal. It's not the money. I got paid for tickets. So I just, you know.
Sam: But this was the time you had set.
Ivan: This was the time we had set. Exactly. That's the problem. Okay.
Ivan: This is the time that we had set. So, you know, I might take him with me on
Ivan: one of my next business trips. This is summer.
Ivan: I'll just, I just might take him with him. And since I got family,
Ivan: I got to go to Puerto Rico. Because I have family.
Ivan: I'll talk to my aunt and say, hey, can you, you know, if I got to go to a business
Ivan: meeting, go watch, watch Manu.
Ivan: Will I have to go to a meeting or something or whatever? I could probably figure
Ivan: out who, who can mine Manu. Will I, will I do some work?
Ivan: So that, that may be my, my next experiment. But anyway, it's my fault. we're not there.
Ivan: I messed up. And so, uh, okay.
Sam: Well, and so sorry to the people who said they wanted to meet us for the curmudgeon's
Sam: corner meetup. Maybe some other time we'll see.
Ivan: Oh, I think Manu wants to, Manu didn't want to go to Seattle.
Ivan: So I don't know, probably have to figure out to speak.
Sam: Someday, someday, you know? Yeah. So, and we did have a couple of people who
Sam: were going to show up. Yes.
Ivan: Yes.
Sam: Anyway. Okay, I have a story. I have a story, too. So I'm actually going to
Sam: dispense with the movies and books and stuff.
Ivan: We're dispensing.
Sam: I've been doing two a week for a few weeks. So, you know, we will dispense with
Sam: those and I will tell a story instead.
Sam: And, you know, look, yeah, okay. So and then we'll see, like,
Sam: there is newsy stuff to talk about.
Sam: I'm not going to worry too much. We can squeeze that to the end of the show. It's fine.
Ivan: I mean, the world is, you know, fucked up. News summary.
Ivan: Our country is fucked up. The world is fucked up. Okay, here you go. News summary. Next.
Sam: Okay, there you go. Okay, I'll tell my story. So last weekend,
Sam: and this was happening probably not, well, it overlapped with the story you
Sam: just told. So it was Sunday last weekend.
Sam: So Brandy was going to go to one of like a pride parade in Seattle. Okay.
Sam: So she was going to go and participate and help like carry the flag and do some
Sam: stuff, meet some friends, do whatever.
Sam: And so she didn't want to drive there because, you know, it was like a one-way parade.
Sam: You know, you start in one place and you go like two miles and you end up somewhere
Sam: else. She didn't want to walk back to get to the car, blah, blah, blah.
Sam: all kinds of things. So the plan was that I would drop her up,
Sam: drop her off, and then pick her up like late. Right.
Sam: So I went to, so I drove her into Seattle.
Sam: I dropped her off near the start of the parade route. And of course it gets
Sam: crowded as you get close.
Sam: So it didn't get quite as close to it as I wanted to, but I dropped her off and she went in.
Sam: So I started to go home and And I went a little ways towards home.
Sam: Car started overheating.
Ivan: Oh, boy.
Sam: Yes. Car started overheating. Now, wait.
Ivan: Which car? We're driving your car.
Sam: I was driving my.
Ivan: Which is a Subaru.
Sam: It's a 2012 Subaru in front.
Ivan: 2012 Subaru. How many miles on this thing?
Sam: Like 151,000.
Ivan: Ah, well, okay. Here, so from what I know.
Sam: I have a lot of story left to go.
Ivan: Well, here is. Okay, so based on the information you've told me,
Ivan: these Subarus of that vintage have issues specifically around head gaskets that
Ivan: cause coolant loss, that cause overheating.
Ivan: It's been a well-known thing.
Sam: Okay. Well, we'll see if we get there. So good prediction.
Sam: We will, I will tell the rest of the story and then we will see if you are right.
Sam: Okay. So first thing I do is I'm like, I, this happened.
Sam: It started overheating right before I was going to get on the highway.
Ivan: Oh shit.
Sam: So so i say i'm
Sam: not gonna get no highway no no i i
Sam: say i'm not gonna get on the highway and so i
Sam: i i pass the exit to the
Sam: highway and i'm looking for like a parking
Sam: lot i can pull over into or something like that um but
Sam: the light goes out it looks like it's
Sam: happy again i'm like okay well
Sam: maybe it was something transient even for those of you who can't see Yvonne
Sam: is shaking no no no no no so so you started you.
Ivan: Started wishful thinking.
Sam: I started I started wishful thinking i
Sam: did a big like 10 i i
Sam: i did a big loop around the light didn't go
Sam: on for like 10 minutes i'm like okay i'll i'll get on the highway so you went
Sam: 10 minutes which you could have used on the highway better i could have yes
Sam: although where i was like it took a while to get back it's not like it's not like the highway.
Ivan: Okay and it depends on what the failure is.
Sam: You've got more cooling because of the air flow. Yes. Okay. So anyway, I got on the highway,
Sam: And the first thing I'm doing is I'm from, because of where I was in the route
Sam: home, I was crossing the lake from Washington, from Seattle,
Sam: Washington to Bellevue, Washington. So I was on like bridges and stuff.
Sam: So I'm like on the bridge going across and I'm about halfway through and it
Sam: starts like shuddering, starts going shuddering.
Sam: No, it doesn't. What does it do? It's just the light.
Ivan: It's just the lights.
Sam: It's just the lights, just the lights blinking on the dashboard.
Sam: I have no other signs of this. Like there's no like.
Ivan: Okay, but the light came back on.
Sam: The light came back on, and not only that, it started blinking between the red light. Oh, man.
Sam: Which indicates not only is it hot, but the fluid levels are low.
Sam: Okay? So I managed to get off the bridge.
Ivan: Park?
Sam: I pull over. I find some place to park. It's actually near where we used to
Sam: live before we moved to Africa.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: So I knew the area. OK, it's in Bellevue, Washington, for anybody who near here,
Sam: it's like the Factoria Mall.
Sam: I ended up at parked like near the Factoria Mall.
Sam: Actually, the first thing I saw was a Jiffy Lube and I pulled into the damn
Sam: Jiffy Lube just in case I'm like, OK, am I just out of fluids?
Sam: They were closed. So it didn't matter.
Sam: But so I ended up at a parking lot at the mall.
Sam: And so no, a gas station. I went I went to a gas station next.
Ivan: Triple A.
Sam: I'm like. Well, first, I'm like, you know, maybe I just have to,
Sam: like, fill up the radiator or whatever.
Sam: Fill up the core. Yvonne's shaking his head again.
Ivan: Oh, God, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Another no, no, no, no.
Sam: Oh, you'll love the rest of us.
Ivan: Oh, God, no.
Sam: We're not even close to the end.
Ivan: Oh, jeez, okay.
Sam: So, first of all, I am like, you know, hey, I could just call AAA. Yes, yes.
Ivan: Yes. Yes.
Sam: But no, I'm like, I'm at the gas station and they have some coolant.
Sam: Like I, I, I, like, you know, I, I, I, you know, wait for everything to cool down.
Ivan: Okay. You didn't wait. Okay. Good. All right. At least you didn't do that.
Sam: I didn't open it and have it explode in my face. I'm not in the hospital.
Ivan: Okay. All right.
Sam: Good.
Ivan: Okay. Well, you're going to have the scary episode without being in the hospital,
Ivan: you know, as some people have, but okay. All right. So you didn't wait for it to cool down.
Sam: I did wait for it to cool down. I added coolant. I read the whole thing. I waited.
Sam: I, you know, I was looking up instructions on the internet on how long I should
Sam: wait and what kind I should put in and all this kind of stuff.
Sam: Cause of course I don't know.
Sam: Cause yeah, I'm not a car person at all, but I'm looking up the,
Sam: like what, what, what I should add, how much I should add, how long I should wait.
Ivan: So the number one thing that these people didn't tell you is like, Hey, you know what?
Ivan: This adding coolant thing doesn't really work. You really should just,
Ivan: you know, at this moment, we should just quit.
Ivan: None of these idiots on the fucking internet said this because that is the,
Ivan: you know, this is the thing that pisses me off about the fucking internet.
Ivan: The first thing they should have told you is, hey, you know what?
Ivan: Guess what? If you're at this situation, just quit while you're ahead. Don't do anything.
Ivan: Because if your car is low on coolant so quickly, something else is majorly wrong.
Sam: Right. Okay. So. After waiting the appropriate time, I try to drive again.
Ivan: Uh-huh.
Sam: So I make it, it goes like, I don't know, five minutes, less than five minutes.
Sam: And then it starts overheating again.
Ivan: Of course.
Sam: So, and then I'll leave out a couple steps here because there were some,
Sam: you know, start and stop.
Sam: But I ended up in the parking lot of the Factoria Mall.
Sam: and, you know, I popped a hood, you know, ready to look again,
Sam: ready to add more fluids. You know, because I hadn't...
Ivan: You did not.
Sam: I hadn't filled it.
Ivan: Oh, you hadn't filled it.
Sam: I'd add, I added some, but I bought like one gallon and it hadn't filled it entirely.
Sam: So I'm like, okay, maybe I need to add more. And so I went and bought like two more gallons.
Ivan: Did you look to see if it was leaking?
Sam: There was nothing visible under the car.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: Like there was not like a pool of stuff. Other than when I poured,
Sam: like, the fluid and mist.
Ivan: Yeah, of course. Yeah, that does.
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: I mean, yeah.
Sam: Because, of course, the first time I did this, I didn't get a follow or anything.
Ivan: Show, Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. That's standard operating procedure.
Ivan: Yes, okay. All right, good. All right. I'm glad.
Sam: Okay, so this time when I opened it, I noticed a very visible large hole in
Sam: one of the radiator pipes. well that like it was a big big like okay so.
Ivan: So so so what are the what are radiator hoses popped.
Sam: Yes not good yes not good,
Sam: so then again again skipping again skipping a few steps because there were other
Sam: thought processes and things that were going but and don't get me started on why this even like,
Sam: crossed my mind what.
Ivan: Crossed your mind good lord.
Sam: I was within sight of an auto parts store so i'm like this looks easy i'll just get the hose.
Ivan: Oh, my God. No.
Sam: Yvonne is holding his head in his hands.
Ivan: What raging thoughts of delusion were crossing through your head?
Sam: Well, first I was going to duct
Sam: tape the hole. First I was going to duct tape the hole. You know what?
Ivan: That actually would have been probably a better idea. Given your skill set,
Ivan: probably would have been a better idea.
Sam: So i bought the right hose i bought an a the wrench they told me i needed oh.
Ivan: God these guys.
Sam: At the auto.
Ivan: Parts store are also a bunch of fucking idiots i'm like they're not looking
Ivan: at this guy do you even know what you're doing sir should be the first thing.
Sam: So i i got the old hose off in like
Sam: 30 seconds i started putting the
Sam: the new one on i i got the new one in place but
Sam: the the the sort of friction brackets they
Sam: had the tool they'd given me could not get
Sam: them open enough to get over the hose to
Sam: clamp it properly okay so these are the kinds of brackets by the way where it's
Sam: not the kind with the little screw it's the kind that are like tension so they
Sam: like they close out you have to like pull them open with a lot of force and
Sam: then So these hose clamps were not like.
Ivan: They're not the ones that you tighten with a screw. These are actually tension
Ivan: ones. Okay. All right. Got it.
Sam: Yes. Yes. Okay. And the wrench they gave me just kept slipping.
Sam: It just could not produce enough force. It kept slipping.
Sam: So after like trying this for like an hour, maybe more, I went back to the auto
Sam: parts store and I was like, you know, this wrench is not doing the thing.
Sam: and and so they they gave
Sam: me they they exchanged it they
Sam: exchanged the wrench they gave me a better more expensive wrench okay and at
Sam: this point also this is a crucial thing they said you know it might be good
Sam: also just get you know just get new of the clamps but they didn't have the right kind,
Sam: They didn't have the right kind. They only had the screw kind.
Sam: And they mentioned that, but the screw kind isn't recommended for this because
Sam: it can't really handle the pressure.
Sam: They'll come loose. They will come loose over time.
Ivan: It can't handle the pressure.
Sam: Yeah, so like, now, here's the thing. I was never intending to make a permanent repair.
Sam: I just wanted to get the thing so I could drive it to the shop instead of calling AAA.
Ivan: Which by the way this is the thing about your explanation why does this make sense,
Ivan: since all you're trying to do is to get into the fucking shop why the hell did
Ivan: you just have a toad to the fucking shop which you're already paying for triple
Ivan: a so it is free and then just take an uber home well.
Sam: Well in part because by this point i'd already done half i i'd taken off the
Sam: old hose. I'm like, oh, this would be embarrassing.
Ivan: This is what we're concerned about. Oh, okay. All right. This will be embarrassing at this point. Okay.
Sam: You know, because I've done a half-ass bad repair.
Ivan: So, you know, you just don't want to look like a, you know, like an idiot. Oh, okay. All right.
Ivan: That's our biggest concern at this point. Okay.
Sam: Right. So, anyway, so I take, oh, and so they had the screw ones that I, they were on the thing.
Sam: I had them there and the, but because they were like, ah, these aren't good
Sam: for this though. I'm like, okay, I'll just get the wrench.
Sam: I'm not going to get the, the screw things and I'll go back.
Sam: And, and they're, and they're, they're very friendly. They're very nice.
Sam: They're like, if this doesn't work, come right back. Okay. But I went.
Ivan: And so what's i you know what time of the day is this by now okay.
Sam: Well this whole thing started probably around.
Ivan: One one o'clock in the afternoon.
Sam: But by this time it was like five.
Ivan: Holy shit we've been at this already for four or five hours yeah so wait okay
Ivan: so by the way what's what's brandy doing at this point you know brandy's still
Ivan: like okay brandy's still at the parade okay fine Why? Okay.
Ivan: And you haven't told her anything about this.
Sam: No, no, no. I've been in constant communication.
Ivan: Oh, no. She knows. So she knows. Okay. All right. Fine.
Sam: She knows. She knows. She knows all this is going on. And yeah.
Sam: And, you know, there are a few places I said I skipped stuff.
Sam: Like before I went to the auto parts star, I like went to like the target that
Sam: was also in to see if I could get duct tape or see if I could get other things.
Sam: And then I then I realized, okay, that's not going to do it.
Sam: So then I looked, you know, is there an auto parts near store nearby?
Sam: And it was like right across the street from where I'd park.
Sam: So I was like, OK, I'll go over there, you know.
Sam: Anyway, I'd left out a bunch of steps and walking back and forth and doing things.
Sam: And at one point, you know, I was I was trying again, adding more fluid,
Sam: but I needed to let it cool down again. So I went and had lunch at the mall, you know.
Ivan: So one of the few sensible things that you did, which is like at some point,
Ivan: you know, why don't I have lunch? I actually think that that was one of the
Ivan: few sensible things I've heard so far. Yes.
Sam: So, anyway, with this new wrench, I got much, much further.
Sam: I got one end of the hose basically on.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: I could tell it wasn't quite where it was supposed to be, but it was secure
Sam: enough that I could not remove it by pulling it with my hand.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: Yeah, basically, if you know how these things work, there's a little lip where
Sam: you stick the hose onto a metal part, and there's a little lip on that.
Sam: You have to get over the lip, and then you clamp it on the other side of the
Sam: lip so it can't pull off. Okay?
Sam: And on the one end, I got it so the clamp was on the lip.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: Not past the lip, but on the lip.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: So it wasn't, I knew it wasn't how it was supposed to be. but it seemed okay.
Sam: Okay. The other side for the life of me, I could not get on.
Ivan: No, boy.
Sam: I could not, I could not get it over the lip. Okay.
Sam: And so I, I tried and I tried and I kept going over and over and over again.
Sam: Like I could, I could get the clamp on, I could get the hose on where it's supposed
Sam: to be, but I could not get the clamp into position over where it is.
Sam: And part of what this apparently is, as I have learned subsequently, the OEM parts,
Sam: well, the non OEM parts, like the kind I got from the auto parts store,
Sam: are slightly thicker and slightly stiffer than the name brand parts that you
Sam: would have gotten from the factory.
Sam: So they are harder to get on.
Sam: You know, like basically the hose was just slightly too thick for me to get
Sam: it over the lump. And like, I am sure an experienced technician with all the right tools and stuff.
Ivan: Yeah, they could have gotten it on. Right. Yeah.
Sam: They could have gotten it on, but I could not fully. So, of course,
Sam: the first thing I do is I try, I get it on as best I can.
Sam: And I'm like, okay, I'll give this a shot. It's the best I can.
Sam: I've been trying for hours. Yeah.
Sam: I'm going to, I'll drive around the mall parking lot for a couple minutes,
Sam: see if it seems like it's going, and then start going.
Sam: So I drive around the mall parking lot a couple minutes.
Sam: It's going kind of okay.
Sam: So I decide to cross the street and go back to the gas station where I'd originally filled up the fluids.
Sam: Because I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I'll just go short. I'll check it.
Sam: And, you know, I need some oil, too.
Sam: Maybe I'll buy some oil. Maybe I'll add some oil. Yeah, sure.
Ivan: The oil's going to fix this problem, of course.
Sam: So I go across the street to the gas station. I get some oil.
Sam: I pop the hood open. And guess what?
Sam: The hose came off on the end that was not clearly on right. Which,
Sam: of course, you would expect.
Ivan: It wasn't clearly on right.
Sam: Yeah, I knew it wasn't on right. So then here is the next big mistake I made.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: You know, those of you who are only listening to audio and not watching on video
Sam: are missing out on all of Yvonne's facial expressions during all of this.
Ivan: I'm just, like, yeah, I'm just, every second of the story, it's like,
Ivan: I just hear Sam just sliding further and further into quicksand.
Ivan: That's all it feels like, you know? And he keeps, like, trying harder to get
Ivan: out of the quicksand, just keeps burying him further and further, yes.
Sam: Hey, look, I was actually, like, I was proud of myself. I, like,
Sam: kind of replaced the hose.
Ivan: I mean, it looked on there. It looked like it was on.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: Right? Yeah.
Sam: Yes. Well, not quite.
Ivan: No, no, no. But it's like if you were, like, 10 feet away, it looked like it was on.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. If you were 10 feet away, it would look like it was on. Right.
Sam: If you looked carefully, you would realize one end was not fully secure. But, you know.
Ivan: You know, close enough. It's like horseshoes and hand grenades,
Ivan: you know? Yeah, you know.
Sam: Anyway, so here's my mistake. Well, my next mistake.
Sam: There are many mistakes in this story, and we're not done yet.
Sam: But it was now 7 p.m. or something.
Ivan: Jesus Christ, six hours of this. Okay.
Sam: The auto parts store closes at 8. Closes at 8.
Sam: And at this point, I'm like, maybe those ones with the screw,
Sam: I should have bought them while I was there.
Ivan: Okay.
Sam: And because...
Sam: Maybe they, yeah, they loosen over time, but they'd probably be fine for me
Sam: to drive to the dealership.
Ivan: Here's the other thing that I
Ivan: realized is you told me that you had been in constant contact with Brandy.
Ivan: Brandy is a very do-it-yourself repair person.
Ivan: Yeah. So I'm sure that instead of like, if you would have asked me,
Ivan: which I would have said, get the fucking car, call AAA, put the fucking car
Ivan: in the tow truck, get it over there.
Ivan: Brandy was probably trying to guide you.
Sam: She was encouraging me and being sort of like, she was like impressed that I was even trying.
Ivan: Exactly. So she was impressed that you were trying.
Sam: Because I also, I am also not a do-it-yourself person. My natural inclination would have.
Ivan: The natural is to not, you know.
Sam: But here's the thing too.
Ivan: So the thing is, it's not about being a do-it-yourself person or not, okay?
Ivan: The problem is recognizing the problem, okay?
Ivan: And how bad it is. Because, for example, I, the thing is, I don't.
Sam: You would be immediately like, it's not just a hose. Exactly.
Ivan: I would be immediately, my diagnosis is, this is beyond my skills.
Ivan: Done. No, we're not even trying because I already know from experience,
Ivan: this is beyond my skills. Okay?
Ivan: This thing needs to be towed. There is no reason the car just loses,
Ivan: you know, a car, you know,
Ivan: the cooling system in modern cars, for any of you that don't know this out there,
Ivan: it's a sealed system. Okay.
Ivan: Unless there is some kind.
Sam: You should never have to add some.
Ivan: You should never, ever need to add fluid. So unless there is some kind of leak
Ivan: or failure, the water pump failed, the main gasket failed, the hose failed,
Ivan: something failed in the system,
Ivan: you shouldn't need to add water at any point in time, okay?
Ivan: And the worst thing is that if the water is not visible, so say,
Ivan: hey, you're low, but it's not visible, okay? It means that it's something bad.
Ivan: It's really bad. Because one thing is, hey, you get to the front of the car
Ivan: and you see all the water running out.
Ivan: You know immediately, hey, the radiator broke, hose popped off.
Ivan: No big deal. You can just replace those in a second. But if it's low and you
Ivan: go look and you don't see any of it, that's when it's really bad.
Sam: So anyway to continue the story i realized
Sam: the hose had popped off when i went to add the oil i never
Sam: did add the oil by the way at least now you got oil yeah well the oil did eventually
Sam: get added just not by me we'll continue oh by the way i should mention by this
Sam: point by this point at least twice good samaritans had stopped by to see what
Sam: i was doing and see if they okay.
Ivan: Well that's good nice.
Sam: So nice so like what good one guy
Sam: came one guy came by and was like oh i've
Sam: replaced this hose a few times myself here's a
Sam: trick to get the tension thing and he tried to try the trick he's like because
Sam: you can you can use zip ties to sort of grab it and help pull it together and
Sam: he tried to do that and he did that and he spent like 15 minutes with me like
Sam: working with it and he's the one who's sort of like hey this wrench they gave
Sam: you the first time yeah so sucks.
Ivan: This is not good.
Sam: It's, it's, it's broken. It's bad. It's like, take this back, get a different one.
Sam: And then another guy came by and also sort of looked in and helped and,
Sam: and taught, he didn't really like help, help.
Sam: He didn't get his hands dirty, like the first guy, but he, he,
Sam: he like, you know, came by and was like encouraging.
Sam: I don't know what he was, but anyway, like at least twice, just,
Sam: you know, random people coming by the parking lot came by to help.
Sam: so anyway so at this point
Sam: after i got the oil at the gas station and the hose popped
Sam: off it's 7 p.m the parts
Sam: shop closes at 8 i i i could have gone back and gotten those the the ones with
Sam: the screws but here's the thing you know we we talked a little bit earlier in
Sam: the show about autism now we can talk about mine i was in an autistic spiral
Sam: at this point because here's the deal.
Sam: Like if I had never tried at all, if I had originally just said I'm calling
Sam: triple A, we're done here.
Sam: Then I would have been, you know, AAA would have picked me up in an hour or
Sam: whatever. We would have been cool.
Sam: But because I had started to try to get this damn hose on.
Ivan: You were like on a mission from God to get this damn hose on.
Sam: That's right. And I could not think of anything else.
Sam: So I kept trying over and over and over again. And I'm like,
Sam: the auto parts store is closing in 15 minutes.
Sam: The auto parts store is closing in 10 minutes. I'm like, I should stop this
Sam: and go get the other brackets because with the brackets and a screwdriver,
Sam: I might actually be able to do this.
Sam: But no, I kept trying and trying, trying. The auto parts store closed.
Sam: I kept trying and trying and trying and trying.
Sam: I once again got it to sort of the best I could possibly do.
Sam: I drove it a few hundred feet across the thing again to the mall.
Sam: It did pop off again, which was not unexpected. I did. I knew I hadn't gotten it on any tighter.
Sam: I I'm talking, I I'm talking to my wife again. The parade is now over.
Sam: She, so, and, and, and, and she's like, are you going to call triple a at this point?
Sam: I'm like, I don't know if I can. what.
Ivan: Do you mean you don't know.
Sam: If you can well cause I'm in this autistic spiral I can't stop okay I can't
Sam: stop I'm like I gotta do this and so like so anyway,
Sam: she she's like yeah do you need my help i'm like i think yes,
Sam: okay um like an uber so send.
Ivan: Me where you are.
Sam: No no so actually she had taken the train up north my daughter had picked her
Sam: up okay so what she did was she she she my daughter picked her up They went
Sam: home again, left my daughter at home.
Sam: She went and found someplace that sold the screw things.
Sam: And she got some at a local store.
Sam: Now, it wasn't an auto parts store. I think these were the ones actually meant
Sam: for, like, dryer hoses or something.
Ivan: I'm like, oh, my God, she got some. Great. Now we're down to using house parts
Ivan: for a car. Okay, good, good, good.
Sam: We're heading in the.
Ivan: Right direction here yes there you go.
Sam: And so anyway,
Sam: so she gets that and then comes to me now with all the round trips and back
Sam: and forth by the time she gets to me and she brings Alex with her because Alex
Sam: wanted to witness this to make fun of his dad,
Sam: good man good man because he loves to mock me for things like this good man
Sam: yes anyway by the time they got By the time they got to me, it was about 10 p.m.
Ivan: Oh, my God. Holy shit.
Ivan: You see, this is the reason I said that that moment, the one moment of clarity
Ivan: that you had this whole day, I'll go eat lunch.
Ivan: That was the one moment that I said you had clarity because,
Ivan: fuck, if you had not, by this moment, you would have been just dying.
Sam: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So I, I, I, and, and, you know,
Sam: I went to, there was a Red Robin in the mall. I went to the Red Robin, had a nice burger.
Ivan: There you go. Nice.
Sam: Nice burger. Yeah. So anyway, she got there.
Sam: She, she brings the rings. She brings like some other tools.
Sam: She, she tries for a few minutes to do it the same way I had been doing it.
Sam: She's like, you're right. Can't do this.
Sam: It's not going to work. but let's try
Sam: these okay so we get those
Sam: on it and and and it you know she does this of course she did yeah at this at
Sam: this point she's taken over because i'd been trying for hours and hours now
Sam: i admit towards the end of this i began to be defeated and in between tries
Sam: i would just go sit in the car for 15 minutes,
Sam: And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to try again. You know?
Sam: Because at this point also, I'm sore. I've been using muscles I've never used before.
Ivan: I mean, well, it wasn't hot outside at least, right?
Sam: It was hot. Well, it was hot to me.
Ivan: What was the temperature?
Sam: It was like 80.
Ivan: Shit. Okay. So it was kind of, yeah, that was kind of warm for you.
Ivan: Okay. Yeah. Out there all day, 80 degrees.
Ivan: But remember, it's not just 80 degrees in the sun and doing work.
Sam: Yeah yeah yeah and do physical yes
Sam: okay yeah where and physical work
Sam: where i'm like to squeeze this thing together to get
Sam: the ring open you're you're exerting quite a bit
Sam: of force not just you know yeah
Sam: i was like fighting with this
Sam: thing for hours and hours and hours okay anyway
Sam: we get the hoses on we we get the hose on
Sam: properly we get the clamps on it seems pretty secure
Sam: we add we add more fluids back in just
Sam: in case you know whatever she puts
Sam: the oil in you know because of course it was also okay yeah and and and it definitely
Sam: needed oil as well um what was the last time you got the car serviced it was
Sam: it was uh it was a thousand miles overdue for the for the thousand overdue.
Ivan: A thousand.
Sam: About.
Ivan: You know, for a 150,000 mile car, that's a lot.
Sam: Well, you know, okay, fine.
Sam: Anyway, I had made a note that I had hit the number that I should be calling
Sam: them, and I kept forgetting.
Sam: And so, yeah. Anyway, so we're like, okay, let's Let's try this.
Sam: Because the dealership where we were going to drop it off, about 20 miles away,
Sam: about 20 miles away, we made it about 10.
Ivan: And what happened at the 10?
Sam: So we did make it 10 miles before it started overheating.
Ivan: Okay, so the hose stayed on.
Sam: Yeah, after it started overheating again, we carefully chose our route to not
Sam: have to go over any of the bridges.
Sam: We were going to go extra distance to not risk being immobilized on a bridge. Right.
Sam: So at the moment it overheated, I took the next exit. We found like a parking
Sam: place at some elementary school somewhere.
Sam: And I popped the hood and the hoses did stay on.
Ivan: Go brandy.
Sam: But it was still overheating.
Ivan: Go brandy.
Sam: Yes, go brandy. Absolutely. But it was still overheating. So obviously,
Sam: as you said at the very beginning, something else was going on.
Sam: It wasn't just the split hose or whatever, right?
Sam: And it's quite possible, by the way, that the hose wasn't split the first time I added fluid.
Ivan: No, what probably happened is at some point after it overheated a couple of
Ivan: times, this is like a resultant thing that happened because of the overheat that the hose split.
Ivan: But this wasn't the source of the problem. This was a secondary problem.
Sam: Yes so anyway at this point it's like after midnight we're in the parking lot,
Sam: i finally call triple a 11 hours later it takes two hours for triple a to get to us,
Sam: triple a takes the car away you know takes it takes it to my dealer that you
Sam: know i've got I've gotten all the services and repairs and blah, blah, blah.
Sam: So they, they, they, they, they text me in the morning to let me know what was going on.
Sam: So let me see. Okay.
Sam: Was your initial diagnosis correct?
Sam: Let me read you what the person said. His name is Carlos, by the way.
Sam: Carlos has worked with me for years.
Sam: Sam, not good news, man.
Sam: The oil is mixing with coolant from the car running hot.
Sam: This indicates internal engine gasket failure or possibly a major engine component
Sam: failure, cylinder head or block.
Sam: The next step would be engine disassembly. Maybe time to move on from this car?
Ivan: So I was right. It's exactly what I said.
Sam: You were right.
Ivan: These cars, unfortunately, I know you had a Subaru, but unfortunately,
Ivan: unfortunately, yes, Subarus over the last 15, 20 years have gotten a really
Ivan: bad reputation because they all fail in this same way.
Sam: And from what I understand, like, from conversations a few years ago,
Sam: not like right now, the particular years surrounding the 2012 were particularly bad for this problem.
Sam: Like, I gather it's, you said they're still having the problem,
Sam: but I gather it was worse.
Ivan: Well, one thing is, obviously, what do we know about the recent ones?
Ivan: Like, you know, I don't know. They're not that old.
Sam: Yeah, because they're not old enough.
Ivan: But the reality is that they haven't really, really, really redesigned that engine that much. Okay?
Ivan: So it's not like they've done something major to make this not happen again. Okay?
Ivan: So, yeah. And that's the reason why I mentioned about why this was catastrophic.
Ivan: Because you didn't see the damn water outside. Right.
Ivan: The only fucking way it could be is it's because it's mixing up with the fucking engine oil.
Ivan: OK, that's the only place where it could be.
Ivan: OK, there is no other place it's going. It's not, you know, it's not disappearing.
Ivan: It's going into the engine. It's mixing with the oil that turns it into.
Ivan: Man, it looks like a milkshake when it's in there, unfortunately.
Sam: And so, so the bottom line, the best case scenario, and the worst just goes
Sam: up for that, would be like seven grand to deal with this thing.
Ivan: How much?
Sam: The car is not worth.
Ivan: How much is the car?
Sam: It's not worth even remotely close to seven. So basically, I'd be lucky if it's worth a thousand.
Ivan: You've got to junk it. You've got no choice.
Sam: You know, because here, like, look, not only is it a 2012 Subaru Impreza,
Sam: it's a 2012 Subaru Impreza where the backseat has been eaten by rats and not replaced.
Sam: So, like, it's, well, not entirely, but there's a hole.
Ivan: There's a hole.
Sam: Like, we put a seat, at a certain point, we decided it's not worth fixing the
Sam: backseat because that would cost $3,000. We'll put a seat cover on.
Sam: And I've been good about putting in, like, the little rat repellent and stuff
Sam: every few months. Well, I haven't been good right now. Well,
Sam: oh, well, it doesn't matter anymore.
Sam: Anyway, so, like, yeah, I'd be lucky if the damn thing's worth $1,000.
Sam: You know, I'd probably have to pay to get the thing, like, taken away.
Sam: You know, I mean, there might be some parts that it could be sold for.
Sam: I don't know. But, like, it's probably. I will probably have to pay to take it.
Ivan: The car is worth junk value at this point. They'll take it because,
Ivan: look, if your doors are in, you know, if your doors are in decent shape.
Sam: The hood, nothing's in decent shape. This is me you're talking about.
Ivan: I mean, what I'm saying, are they rusted through, you know, or something?
Sam: Probably not rusted through.
Ivan: Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, somebody has got to beat her car,
Ivan: wants a hood, you know, whatever.
Sam: Gotcha.
Ivan: You know, I mean.
Sam: You know, they're not pretty. Everything's scratched.
Ivan: No, well, they're going to have to paint it, whatever. But if it's if it's not
Ivan: rusted through, somebody needs to use.
Sam: I've got tape permanently attached in various places.
Ivan: OK, so basically. Sam is cooked. Sam is once again cooked another car.
Sam: Just just to just to be clear that taped, not because I'm like holding parts
Sam: of the car together, taped because at one point or another.
Sam: Well, at one point, Alex bought some stuff at Lowe's that didn't fit inside
Sam: the car, and so he attached it to the car with scotch tape.
Ivan: Can I give you the worst news? Can I give you the worst news?
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: If you would have called me immediately when this happened—.
Sam: You would have told me.
Ivan: No, I would have told you to stop immediately because I suspect that it has
Ivan: to be the head gas. And here's the thing.
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: Can I tell you the worst news? That if you probably had stopped driving at that moment.
Sam: I might have made it worse.
Ivan: No, you didn't. No, no, no.
Sam: You didn't. I probably made it worse.
Ivan: You made it worse. Unfortunately.
Sam: Yes.
Ivan: So if you had stopped at that moment.
Sam: And immediately got in tow.
Ivan: Immediately got in tow. It may, may have been salvageable. But, but, but.
Sam: Probably not.
Ivan: Probably not because the problem is you still have to replace the head gasket,
Ivan: which means tearing apart the engine, which means a couple of thousand dollar job.
Ivan: And if the car's not worth, you know, the car's probably still not worth the repair.
Ivan: One of the things is that these cars used don't get a lot of money.
Ivan: Don't get a lot of money because everybody is.
Sam: We already, a few years ago, once, put more money into it than it was worth
Sam: just to keep it going a few more years. Doing it again makes no sense.
Ivan: Not with this, no.
Sam: No.
Ivan: The moral of the story that I will tell you, here is the moral that I will tell you,
Ivan: is that because of your driving and maintenance record,
Ivan: my suggestion is whatever the
Ivan: fuck car you buy right now please for the love of God make it be a Toyota,
Ivan: and I will tell you why look this isn't listen this isn't listen,
Ivan: fucking Toyotas this shit doesn't happen and not just that but they will they
Ivan: allow themselves to get abused and still be rescued anyway because the cars
Ivan: are it's a resale value thing,
Ivan: fucking Subarus have gotten such a bad rap over the years for this shit that
Ivan: the resale value of the used ones is zero because everybody knows that their
Ivan: engines are a ticking time bomb waiting to go off okay,
Ivan: but but a used toyota like this with these miles and this age probably without
Ivan: the rad hopefully you know it looks like that would have been seven thousand
Ivan: dollars eight thousand dollars,
Ivan: You know, at that age, they just hold value so much more because people know
Ivan: even if a psychopath like you, who knows nothing about maintenance,
Ivan: gets a hold of one of these, they won't be able to destroy it.
Sam: Yeah, so, I don't know. Like, I don't particularly like the Toyota, so we'll see.
Ivan: Who cares about liking the car? I don't give a shit about you liking the car.
Ivan: I want you to get a fucking Toyota Prius.
Ivan: Okay? You know why? Because you will not break it.
Ivan: You will not break it.
Sam: Anyway.
Ivan: A Corolla Hybrid. Whatever. But you will not break this fucking thing.
Ivan: And that is like my primary goal.
Ivan: My primary goal is not for you to like it.
Ivan: My primary goal is for you to go A to B, that if you forget your oil interval
Ivan: by 3,000 miles, the car won't give a shit. Because that's how Toyotas are.
Ivan: That's the reality. Listen, you will go through all the records.
Ivan: You see, you know, I keep watching all these videos of people with car repair.
Ivan: The reason I know about this is because I watch so many of these that I knew
Ivan: that this is a common problem.
Ivan: But the one thing that you watch in all of these, the common thread is that
Ivan: they got some guy that's like you,
Ivan: but was driving a Corolla and they went 5,000 miles over the service and they
Ivan: go in, they bring the car and they're like, motherfucker. It's like the car didn't care.
Ivan: It just kept going. It didn't matter.
Ivan: And you want to keep your car for 300,000 miles.
Sam: Well, actually, my own, I mean, that would be ideal. My only criteria is I drive until this happens.
Ivan: Yes. But I would like it to be as long as possible before this happens.
Ivan: So the reality is that the only manufacturer
Ivan: that makes a vehicle that can withstand your use case is Toyota.
Ivan: I don't think you're understanding this.
Ivan: You don't really have an option. Unless you just like to go through this shit,
Ivan: I guess. Well, it makes for good content.
Sam: It makes for good content. And it has been, what, 2012? And I think I actually
Sam: bought it at the end of 2011.
Sam: So what, that's 14 years? That's not bad.
Ivan: But it's only 150,000 miles, Sam. It really isn't that many miles. Not for a modern car.
Ivan: You know, I mean, I'm sorry. But, you know, like, I got rid of,
Ivan: you know, like, my BMW that has a, well, the thing is, the BMWs have a reputation for braking more.
Ivan: But the reality is that because I'm a pain in my ass, you know,
Ivan: like, I got rid of it with 170,000 miles, okay, you know, for example.
Ivan: But, you know, but a modern car going 200,000 miles isn't really like it used
Ivan: to be that was like an outlier.
Ivan: it has become far more common like with
Ivan: hondas toyotas even a number of like gm products but a lot of them the problem
Ivan: is that they're massively gas guzzling like chevy silverados or something like
Ivan: that that you know i mean you know you're getting like gallons for the mile
Ivan: and it's like not really conducive yeah so like.
Sam: Look we we may talk more more car shopping.
Ivan: Well because you have to go to the office. You need a car.
Sam: Yes. I need a car.
Ivan: I mean, like, you need a car like right away.
Sam: This week, I already made an excuse and said, hey, my car's in the shop.
Sam: I'm going to work from home for the next few days. And it was a holiday week.
Sam: I need, you know, Monday, I need to be in the office. Now, that does not mean I need a car.
Ivan: But you can take the train. You're going to have to fucking take the train for a little bit.
Sam: I'm going to have to get rides, take the train, take the bus.
Sam: I will have to take one of those modes of operation that I have complained about
Sam: in the past being horribly inconvenient, but I've got no choice.
Sam: So I'm going to have to do that for a little while because I also don't want to rush.
Sam: Like, is it physically possible that I could go out tomorrow and have a car by Monday? Yeah.
Ivan: This would be very simple if you just took the fucking common sense advice,
Ivan: which is don't go anywhere. Go to Toyota and get a fucking Prius.
Ivan: Don't even think about it.
Ivan: Go get a fucking Prius. That's it.
Ivan: You don't need any. By the way, the new Prius, by the way, looks really cool.
Sam: Is improved?
Ivan: No, no, no, no, not just improved. It looks.
Sam: Not the outside. I hated the interior.
Ivan: The interior is improved. The exterior is improved. How it drives is improved.
Ivan: The mileage is improved. right now it's rated as one
Ivan: of the best fucking cars there is it's not
Ivan: like before it was kind of like no no no no no
Ivan: this car now is a really fucking
Ivan: nice car it's cheap reliable and economical you cannot you know because i know
Ivan: that for you i'm like not saying get an electric car because you will be stranded
Ivan: without a battery in like inside like i don't know i don't think.
Sam: No no i I definitely would go that direction if I could. I'm not worried about the battery.
Ivan: Well, you've got a Prius Prime. Here's the thing. I'll tell you what.
Ivan: The Prius Prime gets you 50, 60 miles on plug-in.
Ivan: The great thing about the Prius Prime is that even when it's not on battery,
Ivan: unlike some plug-in hybrids, it still gets excellent mileage that some don't. But that one does.
Ivan: And it's bulletproof. The cars are fucking bulletproof. You just need a bulletproof car.
Ivan: Just go get a fucking Prius. Just stop fucking digging around.
Ivan: Just don't, you know. I can't remember.
Ivan: Now from the slack. It's not. I think Ed and Ed have a Prius.
Sam: I think several people have had Prius.
Ivan: And they all love them.
Sam: Bob just got that Ionic.
Ivan: He likes the Ionic. The Ionic 5 is really cool. There's some really great deals on it.
Ivan: You know, the only thing about the Ionic is that it's not the same thing.
Ivan: you just had Prius yeah but no but the reason is because I know because here's
Ivan: the thing Toyota build quality is still far better than Hyundai,
Ivan: Okay, period. That's it. That's the reason. And right now, what I want is like
Ivan: something that is bulletproof.
Ivan: And Toyota build quality is still the best out there.
Ivan: There's just no, you know, every time that I see some old Toyota,
Ivan: people come in and it's like, holy shit.
Ivan: But, you know, it's just, they are just so reliable that, you know,
Ivan: for you, I would say, get a fucking Prius. They're cheap.
Sam: Cheap is important, too. Like, my ideal price right now would be zero.
Ivan: Oh, well, you know.
Sam: Now, but I know zero is not possible.
Sam: I had been, like, for the last few months, keeping my eye on those Ionics,
Sam: because they do look cool. They do look cool.
Sam: But, like, size-wise...
Ivan: Listen, the Ionic is a good... The Ionics is...
Sam: By the way, just saying, the Impreza, perfect size for me.
Sam: Like, I don't want much smaller, I don't want much bigger. So, close to that size.
Ivan: The Prius is very close to that size. Yeah. You know...
Sam: And so is the Ionic. The Ionic's a little...
Ivan: The Ioniq is a little bit bigger because it's more like a little wagon.
Ivan: John. John has a Prius that he loves as well.
Sam: Anyway, so we'll be poking around. And, like, yeah, the Ioniq is also,
Sam: like, price range would be stretched.
Ivan: Well, that's the thing. Whereas the Prius, it's cheap.
Sam: Could probably manage it, but would have to be really sure about it.
Sam: And also, like, you know, I'm not going to get into details on this stuff,
Sam: but, like, you know, I'm still not feeling super secure in my employment situation.
Ivan: Toyota Prius, starting MSRP, $28,350. Okay?
Ivan: Here's the other thing about the Prius. I would say, the one reason why it's still— And the.
Sam: Primes you mentioned start at.
Ivan: $33. Exactly. Here's the thing
Ivan: about why the Toyota in the end is cheaper anyway than the Ioniq by miles.
Ivan: It doesn't matter. If you get the plug-in, you're still eligible for the tax
Ivan: credit, okay? Number one.
Ivan: If you lease it, okay, then you could buy it out, whatever. But just to get
Ivan: the tax credit. That's what a lot of people do.
Ivan: Just because it's... By the way, you can still get those until September, okay?
Sam: But remember also, like, I beat the hell out of cars and probably would go over the miles.
Ivan: No, no, no, no.
Sam: No, no, no, no.
Ivan: No. The only reason, listen, you, listen, there are people literally that I
Ivan: heard at VW that were doing this. In order to get the tax credit.
Sam: They buy it immediately.
Ivan: Exactly. They bought, they would lease it and they would buy it out immediately
Ivan: just to get the tax credit.
Sam: Like seconds later.
Ivan: Yes, literally. Back-to-back transactions. Okay? Okay? Literally.
Ivan: And so that saves you $7,500.
Ivan: It's not two bits. Okay? It's a lot of money. All right?
Ivan: So, so that's important. And since it's going away, by the way,
Ivan: the credit's going away in September.
Ivan: So, I mean, this is the opportunity to get that.
Ivan: And look, man, I'm telling you, I honestly, I love this car. It's a great car.
Ivan: Anybody that has reliable transportation, Prius, fucking get the goddamn Prius. It's fucking great.
Ivan: You know, you will not be unhappy with this.
Ivan: And it will resist your abuse, which is more important than anything.
Ivan: And if you look at the interior in the pictures.
Sam: But can I easily change the radiator?
Ivan: Ah, you won't have to.
Sam: Because I want to do that like the first week.
Ivan: That's the first thing you're going to do. You're going to spend 12 hours out
Ivan: there in the heat again, like, you know, inserting yourself to death.
Ivan: If you look at the interior, the interior of this car, unlike before, it looks really nice.
Ivan: Everything is really nice about this car. There's nothing bad about this car.
Ivan: And you know what? Your fuel budget, what you spend on fuel in the first month,
Ivan: I guarantee you will drop like 80%.
Ivan: Because right now, your impress has got to do, what, 20-something miles per
Ivan: gallon, maybe, commuting to work?
Sam: I probably lost at this point. It probably did that way.
Ivan: Yeah, so not even, okay? This will get 70, 80 miles per gallon.
Ivan: So you're going to be saving, probably, because you're driving now,
Ivan: how far is your commute every day?
Sam: About 25 miles.
Ivan: So 50 miles round trip. I mean, think about this, okay?
Ivan: you're doing 250, you're doing 1,000 miles, you know, oh God,
Ivan: 1,000 miles divided by 20, which is 50 gallons, 50 gallons times about over $3,
Ivan: 150, close to $200 a month on gas.
Ivan: This thing will save you $150 on fuel easily a month.
Ivan: Just so whatever you're thinking about, you're going to save $150 on fuel at least a month.
Sam: Anyway,
Sam: We've been going a long time. We have like no time left for like news stuff.
Sam: But we will probably discuss more car options on the Curmudgeons course Slack.
Sam: I won't mention it there until this episode is out.
Ivan: Look at all this shit. Look, it's cool. It drives. It's economical. It's reliable.
Ivan: What the fuck else you want? And it's cheap. This is the one thing I keep getting.
Ivan: People going to the dealership. Well, we can't find a car for less than $50,000.
Ivan: No, no, no. You can. man, all you idiots just want to spend too much money.
Ivan: It used to be in the past that to get a nice car, oh, I have to,
Ivan: some features or whatever. You have to buy the luxury car. You have to buy the whatever.
Ivan: One of the things I'm having a discussion this week is that a lot of the mainstream
Ivan: cars now have so many of the features that used to be only exclusive to luxury cars.
Sam: You know, wait a second. Is this, is this, wait. Oh, it just,
Sam: is the handle just hidden?
Ivan: What do you mean the handle? It's a short knob. It's a short knob.
Ivan: It's not hidden. It's a stubby knob.
Sam: Looking at the Prius Prime from a distance, it looks like it didn't have a back door.
Ivan: Oh, no, no, it's a hatchback.
Sam: It didn't have a back handle. Well, yeah, I see that.
Ivan: All the cars now have the handles hidden in the back. They're all hidden in
Ivan: a little thing. Modern thing.
Sam: Weird.
Ivan: It's not weird. Almost every modern car has that damn thing hidden in the back. Under the lip. Yeah.
Sam: Under the lip.
Ivan: Like my wife's crv is that way my car is that way my my literally almost every oh i i.
Sam: See the thing maybe i don't know anyway.
Ivan: Yeah oh so now anyway now now the decision will be made we will talk more on
Ivan: the curmudgeon score slack after.
Sam: This is out yes what what are you.
Ivan: Laughing at now of course the key buying decision will be the it's right under
Ivan: the toyota logo it's right right by the right by the rear view camera.
Ivan: There you go. I can see it. There you go. In the back.
Ivan: There's a little in the back door. Oh, no, they're on the top right.
Ivan: No, no, no, no, no. The door handles are...
Sam: Yeah, I found it.
Ivan: I found it. It's just weird.
Sam: It's not enough.
Ivan: Aerodynamic!
Sam: Anyway. Oh.
Ivan: Save fuel! Save the fucking planet! I know that the Republicans are,
Ivan: you know, just passed a bill that said, let's kill the fucking planet, bitches!
Ivan: We won't be here then anyway!
Sam: Okay, okay.
Ivan: The new GOP slogan. 2026.
Sam: So yes for anybody interested in giving me on advice on this chime in under
Sam: curmudgeons corner slack probably like i said i we will probably do some looking
Sam: at cars and i will look at a prius as and i'll probably also look at an ionic
Sam: although it's probably spendy for me right now but.
Ivan: But you gotta remember the 7500 it looks cool you
Ivan: gotta remember the 7500 credit it okay you got
Ivan: whatever you do the thing that you do that i'm
Ivan: telling you the thing that you make sure you make sure to take that make
Ivan: sure you take that in the account and the way that you buy it out is
Ivan: quite simple recently i took you you joined the credit union that that the part
Ivan: of they offer excellent financing for these all you do is very simple you do
Ivan: the lease at the store you take that paperwork you apply to their credit union
Ivan: you want to buy out the lease you get the amount for the buyout you send it
Ivan: to them they'll do all the paperwork boom boom boom and all of a sudden,
Ivan: it's done. And you get your $7,500.
Ivan: Don't fuck around. I'll lose it. Do not, do not, do not.
Ivan: If you're going to get one of these, it qualifies it. Do not do the fuckable.
Ivan: No, I don't want to lease. No, fuck that. You lease it and you turn around and
Ivan: you fucking finance it immediately.
Sam: Okay. We will talk more, Yvonne, offline and on the Slack. And if anybody else
Sam: wants to give me advice, do it on the Slack.
Sam: We will look at some cars this weekend, but we'll almost surely not actually
Sam: buy this weekend, maybe next weekend.
Sam: So, ah, of course the other possibility, I could just get like a really old
Sam: beater, just as old as the one I have.
Ivan: Sure. And that will like last. Well, if it's an old beater Toyota, maybe. Sure.
Sam: Get like a 20 year old Toyota, replace the 15 year old Subaru.
Ivan: A 20 year old Camry. I mean, they said that, you know, the earth,
Ivan: you know, you know, they, they will probably survive the flood.
Sam: Okay, shall we actually take a break?
Ivan: Yes, and let's talk about something.
Sam: Maybe spend 20, 30 minutes about something else and then wrap it up.
Sam: Okay, here we go. It is, which break is it? It is this break.
Sam: The one and only break this time, I think. Here we go.
Sam: Okay, we are back. So what do you want to talk about? I talked about a car for
Sam: an hour, so it's your turn.
Ivan: What do we want to talk about? Let's see what happened this week. I mean,
Ivan: the only subject that we really left on there is the fact that the Republicans
Ivan: passed up the big stupid bill.
Ivan: I mean, and that's really about the only thing.
Sam: The one big, beautiful bill. One Big Beautiful Bill, which, by the way,
Sam: they made the actual title of the bill.
Sam: It's not just Trump saying it. I mean, it was Trump saying it,
Sam: but then they made it the title of the bill.
Ivan: I mean, it's just the entire spectacle was disgusting.
Ivan: It is painfully clear from many that so many of the Republicans themselves hated
Ivan: this bill. But they were all scared of going against Donald.
Ivan: That's it. Nothing else.
Ivan: I mean, this bill doesn't really... I mean, it's...
Ivan: The only people that benefit is people that make a lot of money tax-wise.
Ivan: Everybody else gets screwed.
Ivan: Everything else gets screwed. Oh, and we did this incredibly ridiculous increase in ICE funding.
Sam: Massive.
Ivan: Ten times. We're giving ICE ten times the budget it had before,
Ivan: which is absolutely just insane.
Ivan: By the way, how crazy is this?
Ivan: All the polling shows, 70% of people, are unhappy with this immigration campaign
Ivan: as it has been rolled out the last few months.
Ivan: Polling shows huge numbers of people against it. But that's what they put in the bill.
Ivan: Second thing, because the Republicans have realized that they could just say
Ivan: any lie, and most of their supporters will believe it.
Ivan: They keep saying that this cuts the deficit, whereas this will significantly increase the deficit.
Ivan: This bill is anything about—it actually does a whole bunch of things that stifle
Ivan: jobs, not actually create jobs.
Ivan: because there is no funding in here, for example, to incentivize any job creation.
Ivan: I mean, it's all trickle-down shit again.
Ivan: The funding bill cuts healthcare for a lot of people.
Ivan: And by the way, but more cynically, delays the healthcare cuts until a couple
Ivan: of years later so people,
Ivan: because to convince our gullible electorate that the republicans didn't do it
Ivan: so then if they lose they can blame the democrats for their health care cuts how cynical is that.
Sam: Yes that and not
Sam: only the health care cuts but other things are also delayed to after midterms
Sam: uh basically basically anything that could have a negative effect that people
Sam: would feel right away well not anything but lots of things with negative effects
Sam: that people are delayed until after midterms.
Sam: Whereas, of course, the things that they really want, you know,
Sam: like the ICE funding, which will also have a negative effect on a lot of people.
Sam: But just saying, those things come into play much more quickly.
Ivan: So I'm just...
Sam: And the tax stuff.
Ivan: So it's just, I mean...
Ivan: Here, the biggest problem about this is that just like before,
Ivan: You know, these tax cuts to the rich don't translate into any economic boost.
Ivan: They never have. We've gone through this before already. We've tried this before.
Ivan: W did it. Trump did it. Reagan did it.
Ivan: None of these things translate into any general economic benefit.
Ivan: And Biden showed very clearly that if you do give money to, you know,
Ivan: people like in the from poverty to one to two times the poverty line,
Ivan: that that money does translate directly into economic impact.
Ivan: OK, for for the economy, because those people are the ones that are most in need.
Ivan: And when they get that money, they spend it right away because they need it. OK, they needed it.
Ivan: But this bill does the total opposite. It's going to make those people poor
Ivan: while, you know, giving money to the rich.
Ivan: And by the way, forget about this. At the same time, we're talking about all
Ivan: this tariff policy, which it appears that Trump is, you know,
Ivan: unless the courts finally decide on whether all these tariffs are illegal,
Ivan: which that is still in some kind of holding pattern.
Ivan: I'm not sure where that case is still still going through.
Sam: All of these legal things will take a long time.
Ivan: Right now, Sam was asking me about the impact of tariffs and why haven't we
Ivan: seen them, and I was mentioning how difficult it is to gauge the timeline.
Ivan: Goldman Sachs came out with a note recently specifically talking about this
Ivan: that I had shared on the Slack.
Ivan: They basically said, listen, guys, these are going to happen.
Ivan: This is inflationary. This will take inflation back to levels that we had two years ago, okay?
Ivan: There is no...
Ivan: It's just it's just it's hard to go and tell you exactly.
Ivan: But their note said tariffs have not yet meaningfully affected broader inflation
Ivan: data, but the levies will soon cause inflation to shoot back up to the highest level since 2023.
Ivan: OK, that's the analysis from Goldman Sachs economists.
Ivan: Not exactly a whole bunch of left wing psychopaths over there at Goldman Sachs last time I checked.
Ivan: okay so no no
Ivan: no it's not a no no i i i
Ivan: know it's hard to believe so that's
Ivan: the thing like right now you've got i mean you're making poor people poor with
Ivan: health care and all these other cuts of whatever and at the same time you've
Ivan: done all of this that's going to make inflation go back to where it was a couple of years ago.
Ivan: I mean, this is a fucking, this is a disaster.
Ivan: And, oh, but the other big issue. Yeah, we're increasing funding of ICE by this much, right?
Ivan: What is that going to do to the labor market?
Sam: Because, well, you're going to hire a lot of ICE agents.
Ivan: Apparently, we're going to hire a lot of ICE agents in order to basically reduce
Ivan: the pool of available labor on the other side,
Ivan: which will have a negative effect on economic growth and will also be inflationary.
Ivan: I mean, this entire thing is the worst combination of everything.
Ivan: And by the way, many Republicans know this and have said so in private. They know this.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: And these fuckers just followed this idiot off the cliff,
Ivan: It's just, you know, and people are dumb. You know what? The other day I heard
Ivan: somebody, and I have to explain this again, and they didn't realize.
Ivan: I heard somebody say, you know, they know that all this is bad.
Ivan: And you know what they asked me? Well, why didn't the Democrats stop it?
Ivan: And I'm like, okay, do you under? Okay. And I have to explain.
Ivan: I said, without being condescending.
Ivan: Okay. I don't think you understand. But the Republicans control the House,
Ivan: the Senate, and the presidency.
Ivan: The Democrats cannot stop anything unless some Republicans join them.
Ivan: Really? Yes, really.
Ivan: But Sam, so many people.
Ivan: You know, it's like the same people that told me, well, why didn't the Democrats save abortion?
Sam: It's, I'm sorry, if you'd wanted that. You needed Hillary in 2016.
Ivan: But even still, how, why did they, I mean, we haven't, you know,
Ivan: like I said, and the only time that the fucking Democrats have had a filibuster
Ivan: proof majority was so brief in the last 30 years.
Sam: And they used that for.
Ivan: They gave us all healthcare. You know what? The thing is that I keep going to
Ivan: how stupid our electorate is because it's just, it's is so difficult to see cause and effect,
Ivan: the Democrats, when they held all the levers of power,
Ivan: gave us the biggest improvement in health care since Medicare was passed.
Ivan: Yeah.
Sam: In the 1960s.
Ivan: They gave us the, Sam, they gave us the biggest improvement in the average health
Ivan: care of every American since Medicare was passed.
Ivan: And people don't understand that's what they did.
Sam: And by the way, also in the probably people don't fully understand and won't
Sam: for a while, if ever, is that this thing that just passed this week undoes a
Sam: significant part of that.
Sam: like not directly but by reducing funding for the medicare expansion a lot of
Sam: that is going to go away there's you know it and and of course they're all gaslighting
Sam: this too like there's like oh we're not touching yeah we're just cutting.
Ivan: Them off the money.
Sam: You know right and and oh we're it's only we're getting rid of fraud and abuse
Sam: no there are significant cuts the estimates are like Yeah, over 10 million people
Sam: will lose access to health care.
Ivan: Now, here's the one thing. Now, but over a few years. 10 million people lose it.
Ivan: That is still better than when we were before the ACA. Okay?
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: That is still better.
Sam: Yeah.
Ivan: But still, all they did is make it worse.
Ivan: Everything they do just makes shit worse. I don't fucking, I mean,
Ivan: for the average American,
Ivan: every time these guys pass some legislation, they
Ivan: make I mean what is it that they do
Ivan: to me I don't fucking Sam I don't fucking understand this how the hell could
Ivan: these guys just get away with at every turn at every turn make the average American's
Ivan: life worse and people don't get it they don't get it but.
Sam: Yvonne they're gonna get rid of all the criminal.
Ivan: Rapist Mexicans criminal rapist Mexicans you know all the.
Sam: Gangs and and they'll make it easier for you to get.
Ivan: Come ah oh.
Sam: Did did you see one of one of the important things in this in this bill that
Sam: just passed no sales tax on.
Ivan: Silencers i know that's how could wait how could they regulate sales tax at
Ivan: the state at a state level i don't what what i.
Sam: I don't know i don't i heard that i could be wrong.
Ivan: I'm sorry.
Sam: I i i think they did.
Ivan: Well, I mean, that sounds weird because, I mean, sales tax is a,
Ivan: you know, state and local thing.
Sam: Let's see. Oh, it's the tax stamps on silencers.
Ivan: Yeah, because they're federal tax stamps.
Sam: Tax stamps, not sales tax.
Ivan: That's what you bought. Like, okay, all right.
Sam: Are going to do it.
Ivan: Yeah, not sales tax. Okay, all right. That'd make no sense.
Sam: It's some tax. It's some tax. Yeah, well, okay. I was close.
Ivan: Okay, but that's fair to be good at the right tax.
Sam: But this is important.
Ivan: You're reducing the price of silencers. I mean, they take away health care to
Ivan: give you gut silencers, Sam!
Ivan: The hell's wrong with these people?
Sam: And this is another one of those things i mean
Sam: we've talked one ongoing theme on this show is
Sam: how you know you just talked about how the electorate just doesn't know what's
Sam: going on there's there's part of that this basic education about civics knowing
Sam: how government works and then another big part that we have talked about a lot
Sam: is the democratic is the inability,
Sam: Well, Democratic messages, but I was just going to say the inability to process delayed reaction.
Sam: This bill is another bill that will have implications going out over the course of an entire decade.
Sam: Some things will hit right away. Some things will hit after a couple years.
Sam: Some things will hit after five or six years. Now, that does potentially mean
Sam: that some future Congress and some future administration could undo it before
Sam: we get to the end of the 10 years.
Sam: But as passed, this has timed effects going out over an entire decade.
Sam: And they specifically backload some of the things.
Sam: You know, so some random thing hits in 2030, how many people are going to connect the dots and be,
Sam: this is because of who I elected back in 2024, six years ago, you know?
Sam: I mean, even those of us who pay lots of attention, it's hard to always connect
Sam: those dots of like, oh, yeah, this is happening because of that law that was passed seven years ago.
Sam: you know, or whatever.
Sam: I'll also note there is significant undoing of a lot of the act with all the
Sam: subsidies for renewable energies.
Ivan: Now, a number of them, at least, they gave them time. They didn't do, like, abruptly.
Ivan: Projects need to get kicked off by 2026.
Sam: Some of them were cut out by the Senate.
Ivan: And, you know, so they've got time to kick off some projects and certain things.
Ivan: So at least the Senate didn't go and, like, end them abruptly.
Ivan: The one that ends the quickest is the car credit.
Ivan: That was set for September.
Sam: September. So, yeah, back to my car thing. If I'm going to do something.
Ivan: Do it now. Yeah, you have to.
Ivan: But the car credit goes away by September. But there were others like for clean
Ivan: energy projects, I think they gave them a deadline of like 2026 that they had
Ivan: to get started by and some others like that, that they delayed certain deadlines.
Ivan: And like, like you mentioned, some of the health care cuts didn't start until 2027.
Ivan: So after midterms, they were very, this was pure political calculation.
Sam: Yes. And, you know, even some of them, like, some Republicans in Congress have
Sam: implied, well, like, Susan Murkowski or whatever, when she voted for the Senate.
Ivan: Said she hoped to— You combined Susan Collins with Lisa Murkowski?
Sam: Did I get it wrong?
Ivan: Oh, I did. I did.
Sam: I did.
Ivan: Well, kind of like.
Sam: Well, you know, sure. I combined them.
Ivan: Why not? Same thing.
Sam: Same thing, basically.
Sam: Lisa Murkowski, I think, specifically said that she was not happy with the bill,
Sam: even though she voted for it, but she hoped the House would fix it and it would
Sam: come back to the Senate again.
Sam: Of course, that didn't happen. But off the record, I've heard people reporting
Sam: that at least some Republicans in Congress have been like, don't worry,
Sam: it won't be that bad. At some point, the Democrats will fix some of this.
Ivan: So basically this is what they're okay so this is
Ivan: their thought process okay which it talks about the cynicism of
Ivan: these bastards because we have said this before that
Ivan: they're not interested in fixing anything they're not interested in legislation
Ivan: they're just interested in clicks so this is what you do you pass this whole
Ivan: damn thing that allows you know donald to have his his victory at this political
Ivan: thing or whatever you're allowed to go out there like claim how blah,
Ivan: blah, blah, all this stuff,
Ivan: and you do it knowing full well that a whole bunch of it's going to be undone,
Ivan: so therefore you didn't do it because you wanted to fix anything.
Ivan: You just wanted to do it to score.
Ivan: a political victory.
Sam: I will add to that. I will add to that. If you do have a situation where the
Sam: Democrats get back in power, even partially, like they take the House but not the Senate or wherever,
Sam: and the bad effects start hitting after midterms, you can still blame the Democrats.
Sam: And by the way, if the Democrats do try to fix some of the problems at some
Sam: later point, you can blame them at that point for the problem they're fixing,
Sam: and say they're messing with it. That's why it's bad.
Ivan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all their fault. You see, they're fucking around with
Ivan: it. Right, you see? We passed the perfect bill. Now the Democrats are fucking it up.
Sam: Right.
Ivan: Man, this is fucking... I, you know, I just...
Ivan: Yeah, look at shit, like, for example, I love this one, where the Wall Street
Ivan: Journal publishes a story, Wall Street worries as crisis-level deficits have
Ivan: become the government's default mode. Okay, for example.
Ivan: Because this is what that has been instituted. There's a chart that I shared
Ivan: from The Economist that showed that during the Biden administration,
Ivan: unlike what the Republicans have repeatedly claimed.
Ivan: Public debt as a percentage of GDP started going down steeply during the Biden
Ivan: administration, where it had been growing under the Trump administration.
Ivan: It had surged over the pandemic,
Ivan: but Biden had started to make that go down in a double combination because he
Ivan: had helped the economy grow stronger than it had been in a while,
Ivan: while at the same time, you know, spending had been managed in a more prudent way.
Ivan: you know and so this whole
Ivan: thing about the and and the projection is that
Ivan: it's going to go through the roof so you know
Ivan: it's just so frustrating
Ivan: with these people what all they do is
Ivan: just they lie and they just lie about it and
Ivan: lie and lie just oh it's going to cut the deficit oh it's going to do this oh
Ivan: no we're fixing you know the big the headline on the economist story was the
Ivan: big beautiful bill reveals the hollowness of trumponomics and that's I mean
Ivan: that that's really the that's that's the,
Ivan: Plain truth, it's just completely hollow.
Ivan: It's just all bullshit. There is no substance behind any of this whatsoever.
Ivan: Oh, and by the way, good news. Did you see that because of the cuts of the National
Ivan: Weather Service that, you know, our flash flood forecasting has gotten much inferior?
Ivan: And how many people, 20, you know, about 24 people got killed.
Ivan: At least 20 girls attending a summer camp are missing. And there's still a bunch
Ivan: missing. Okay. And by the way, this is not even us.
Ivan: Texas officials basically said this was all due to a bad forecast by the National Weather Service.
Ivan: This is what I say. But everything they do kills people, hurts people,
Ivan: hurts the country. I mean, there is what, Sam, what the fuck have they done
Ivan: that helps anybody other than themselves?
Sam: Well, that's the point. They're helping themselves.
Ivan: They're not even their voters, Sam.
Sam: Oh, I know. I know. What they give their voters is- Own the lips!
Ivan: We banned five transsexual athletes across the country, Sam.
Ivan: Five of them! Look at that! What?
Ivan: We protected all of you from the five transsexual athletes that you were scared of for some reason.
Sam: The culture war stuff and on the libs is is the raw meat that the Republican base gets happy with.
Sam: I saw someone repost some social media post from somebody that said,
Sam: you know, I forget exactly what they were talking about.
Sam: it was pre-fowl, but it was basically like, I'd be willing to pay like $50 for
Sam: my like groceries or whatever, as long as we get rid of all those damn illegal
Sam: immigrants, you know, for like an avocado or something stupid.
Ivan: Like imported. What a fucking liar.
Sam: You know what?
Ivan: You know what? The worst thing about these people, they're just such liars because
Ivan: the moment that they go to the store and they see an avocado at $50,
Ivan: you know what they're going to be doing.
Ivan: They're going to be, they're going to be living.
Ivan: And you know this. It's just ridiculous.
Ivan: So let's see. I'm looking over here. So I found this thing. For example,
Ivan: let's talk about some of the cynical things in the bill.
Ivan: Tax cuts lasting only through Trump's term.
Ivan: Okay, this is a New York Times that a summary of this. Okay,
Ivan: just see how the cynical timelines on this thing.
Ivan: So no tax on overtime only lasts through the end of Trump's term.
Ivan: So look at how they're doing this, right? So if a Democrat wins,
Ivan: what's going to happen? What does it look like?
Sam: What? Sorry. What?
Ivan: Stop typing. Okay.
Sam: I'm sorry.
Ivan: Tax cuts.
Sam: Stop typing. You know, I'm researching the damn part you were talking about.
Ivan: Take a short break because we only got a couple of minutes left.
Ivan: Tax cuts lasting only through Trump's term.
Sam: Okay.
Ivan: Okay. No tax on overtime. Yeah. So think about this. Democrat wins. All of a sudden. Yeah.
Sam: It goes away.
Ivan: No tax on tips. Also. Now, again, same thing. ends no tax on carload.
Sam: No interest i will i will add i will add a lot of people to also all of these
Sam: ones that you're running through if you look into the details of them,
Sam: don't actually help the people who need the most very much because they're they're
Sam: very low limits that you have to be below for them to apply there's some there
Sam: there's some other technical my point is.
Ivan: The cynical timeline okay all right.
Sam: Yes yeah other tracks.
Ivan: Provisions for example but But those end there,
Ivan: you know, I mean, it's just that one that one was the one to me that that really
Ivan: just was just so cynical about how they they would they would go and like do that.
Ivan: But, hey, we'll do it. But, hey, Democrats in power, we can blame them for it immediately.
Ivan: You know, you're going to see. And that's what they're that's what they're negotiating.
Ivan: So anyway, all right, well, we're almost at our usual time. I think we need to be done.
Sam: We're good. It's time to do the wrap up.
Sam: And then, yeah, I will. I don't know. I have to deal with the damn car thing.
Sam: I really didn't want to right now, but whatever.
Sam: Okay. curmudgeon-quarter.com you can find all our stuff our archives,
Sam: our transcripts all the ways to contact us,
Sam: stuff I still have not linked the TikTok at this point I will next time I mess
Sam: with the site I'll add the TikTok well apparently you shared we.
Ivan: Got a lot of views of the last TikToks.
Sam: Yeah the last TikTok had a few let me see here I posted three videos one of
Sam: them had 145 views One of them had 777, and the third one had 795.
Ivan: I mean, I see one here that you shared on my 780 views on one.
Sam: Well, I just gave you the updated number.
Ivan: The number, you said it sounded lower.
Sam: The one where the three numbers are 145, 777, and 795.
Ivan: Okay, I thought it was 770. Okay.
Sam: 795. Yes, and we got comments on two of the three videos, and we got likes on
Sam: all three. Lots of likes.
Sam: You always get a few of those, I guess. Whatever.
Sam: Let's read. OK, so one is the one that got the most is the one where we talked
Sam: about our disappointment in how elected officials.
Sam: Ah, no, I just want the comments. I don't want to play the video.
Sam: Here we go. Comments where we talked about our disappointment in establishment
Sam: Democrats supporting Cuomo and the Mamdani stuff.
Sam: So let's see. Somebody said. Let's do all comments. All comments.
Sam: Somebody said we lost a good representative by getting rid of Franken.
Sam: Because you talked about Franken. Somebody said, I wish I could explain why
Sam: the leadership didn't understand this.
Ivan: Well, I know why. I just, it's stupid reasoning, but I know why.
Ivan: It's just not valid. Okay.
Sam: We got someone saying, and you are both demonstrating critical thinking in real time.
Sam: You are 100% correct to question why the establishment keeps running the absolute
Sam: worst candidates, despite real people turning up in droves to support progressives
Sam: like Bernie and Mamdani, politicians who are actually in line with the party's value.
Sam: We had somebody say that the Dem charade is undeniable now and unsustainable.
Sam: The young people see it so clearly. Exhibit A, support for Cuomo against a popular
Sam: progressive and the progressive wins the primary.
Sam: Establishment Dems need Trump and will continue to just hand wring as he dismantles democracy.
Sam: Hatred fear of Trump is the Dem platform. They can't campaign on the party's
Sam: ideals because they don't benefit the corporate donors.
Sam: Republicans can rally their base and appease corporate donors at the same time
Sam: because they want the same things.
Sam: And then finally, the last comment on this one, Anthony Weiner, 2028. Just kidding.
Ivan: Oh, I'm sure. Just kidding. Are you kidding? I heard, I read somewhere that
Ivan: he was thinking about running for something.
Sam: No, no, no, no. He did run.
Ivan: Oh, he ran for this one. I didn't realize he was a dude.
Sam: And he did not do well.
Ivan: You think?
Sam: I think it was this.
Ivan: I thought it was something else.
Sam: Whatever he ran for, he did very, very badly.
Sam: He got like just a couple percent or something. Anyway, he says,
Sam: just kidding, but we've learned basically nothing.
Sam: is his statement. And for some reason, that was only five, but it says there's
Sam: seven comments. Let me...
Sam: Let me check one more place, see if it's not showing up in one place, but it is the other.
Sam: I don't know. No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We got more comments
Sam: on the other one, too, with people talking about the economy and blah, blah, blah.
Sam: Weird. Weird. Oh, does it? I don't know. I don't know why.
Sam: Like, my dashboard here doesn't show all the comments, but there's more elsewhere.
Sam: I don't know. Anyway, that's it for TikTok.
Sam: And as usual, you can also go to our Patreon and give us money.
Sam: if you like the show and appreciate it and want to help pay for my new car.
Sam: The $25, $27 a month from the Patreon, I'm sure will go a long way towards whatever payment I need.
Sam: Except, of course, we're saving that up for the next meetup.
Sam: So never mind. Never mind.
Sam: Or maybe I'll use it on my car. And that'll be my down payment.
Ivan: There you go. I'll be okay with that. That's fine. You need a car.
Ivan: I'm good with it. Yeah. That's good use of the money.
Sam: Yeah. This month's $25.
Ivan: I support the $25 going towards Sam's down payment.
Sam: Anyway, yeah. Go to our Patreon at various levels. We will mention you on the
Sam: show. We will ring a bell. We will send you a postcard. We will send you a mug.
Sam: And yes, I do still owe several people. I owe a couple postcards.
Sam: I owe a mug, I think. I will eventually get to it. I have it on a list somewhere.
Sam: I just keep never getting to the list, just like oil changes.
Ivan: Yeah, I noticed.
Sam: So, you know, when I met Sam.
Ivan: He had the dashboard of this Dodge Colt that he had. Like, what do you say?
Sam: It's still in the garage.
Ivan: Okay, this is the habit that I said. He had it in his dorm room,
Ivan: and the Dodge Colt died because of an oil. He just didn't have oil. Yeah.
Sam: Yes. Well, nobody had told me I needed to put oil in the damn thing. I had no idea.
Ivan: I will say that the massive improvement from then to now is that you did see
Ivan: a light that said that you were missing something and you tried to put it in versus before.
Sam: There you go.
Ivan: I mean, that's a huge, huge improvement.
Sam: There you go. And look, I was proud we got, we ended up getting that hose on.
Ivan: And listen, I will admit that I'm impressed that we were able to get that hose
Ivan: on. Unfortunately, the problem is that the hose didn't really, like I said.
Ivan: It was a valiant effort to do repair that actually didn't fix any of the problems.
Sam: Yeah, that should be the story of my life.
Sam: Oh, well. Okay.
Ivan: Well, no, we got one more thing. We got one thing to slack.
Sam: Oh, yes, yes. The highlight from the slack. Go ahead, Yvonne.
Ivan: Anthropics Claude.
Sam: Oh yeah, we will invite you to, I didn't even say, we will invite you to Slack
Sam: if you donate to the Patreon at $2 a month or more, or if you just ask. Okay, now.
Ivan: All right, Anthropics Claude stocked a fridge with metal cubes when it was put
Ivan: in charge of a snacks business.
Ivan: So if you're worried about your local potato convenience store may soon be replaced
Ivan: by an AI storefront, you can rest easy after Anthropics Claude AI had a hard
Ivan: time of running a mini fridge business.
Ivan: metal I mean you know what here's the thing I think you would be happy with.
Sam: We've talked about those tungsten cubes on the show before you.
Ivan: Get to the.
Sam: I have it on my Amazon wish list.
Ivan: Oh metal cubes look at that.
Sam: Well look here I want to be fair like because they make fun of I've seen lots
Sam: of people making fun oh look the computer water metal cubes blah blah blah no here's what happened
Sam: They, they had an internal Slack group where employees could ask for things
Sam: they wanted at the snack thing.
Sam: And some smart ass said, I want the key.
Ivan: Well, if the AI were really smart, hey, you know what? That isn't food.
Sam: But you know people might like it it's a.
Ivan: Veterinarian listen i will say that there is one thing
Ivan: i did get like a few years ago
Ivan: not metal cubes but for scotch for some reason like these little like cubes
Ivan: that i think were like kind of rocks that you're supposed to put them in the
Ivan: freezer to use those instead of ice to drink your scotch so we'll cool it down
Ivan: the The advantage, obviously,
Ivan: is that it won't melt.
Ivan: So it won't, you know, it doesn't mix water with your drink.
Ivan: So that's, so I guess, you know, this isn't like completely insane,
Ivan: but also, yeah, most people don't really need metal cubes in their fridge, I think.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. No, but here's the thing, too. Like, it also made a bunch of mistakes.
Sam: Like, it was selling some products at a loss, you know.
Sam: You know, they cut it off when it, they gave it a certain amount of money to
Sam: play with, and they cut it off when it lost $25.
Ivan: That's pretty bad. That's pretty bad.
Sam: You know, it sort of, it dived initially, it lost a bunch of its money to start up.
Sam: Then it started actually like, the curve started trending up a little bit,
Sam: and then I forget exactly which thing.
Sam: They said there was one particular decision it made that it just started plummeting.
Sam: And, and like most of its losses were due to one particular purchase choice
Sam: where it bought something expensive and was like giving it away.
Ivan: I love this. By the way, here's, I will say this, that it's pretty good at mimicking
Ivan: humans. I will say, because you get, man, let me tell you, I,
Ivan: one time I had to stop putting it.
Ivan: Listen, I took away all purchasing power from employees at the pharmacy when,
Ivan: when I took over, when I was like, when I, when I finished college.
Ivan: because, man, we had exactly that.
Ivan: Some people making these purchases of shit that was unsaleable, okay?
Ivan: And I'm like, I'm sorry.
Ivan: Why the fuck didn't we just fill up this shelf with this shit that doesn't sell?
Ivan: Well, the sales rep gave me a good, like, speech, and I'm like, nobody wants this.
Ivan: I had to, like, mark it down, like, 80% to get the shit to move because I just wanted it gone.
Ivan: Even if I just got 20 cents on the dollar at least, I got something.
Ivan: Instead of like it occupying an entire fucking shelf. So anyway.
Sam: Yeah. Okay. Maybe I should start an AI run shop as my next venture.
Sam: Like quit my job, open a little bodega somewhere, get one of those little kiosks
Sam: in the middle of the mall and just have an AI run.
Ivan: Kiosk at the middle of the mall when she first when she first came to the states
Ivan: let me tell you yeah that's a tough that's a rough business let me tell you
Ivan: something that's a fucking rough business well.
Sam: That's why i want to let.
Ivan: The eye run it you know you need us a little you know i i was just talking to
Ivan: people that we've got or we're selling these robotic kiosks now so basically
Ivan: just you know so people can walk up to the kiosk to go at a cell phone store
Ivan: so you can go over there, like do all your transaction talking to,
Ivan: some little like animated robot thing. So there you go.
Sam: It's good. Well, you're selling it. It's gotta be good, right?
Ivan: Oh, no, it's fantastic. What are you kidding me? It's the best damn thing.
Ivan: Best damn thing we made. What are you kidding? It's fantastic.
Sam: There you go.
Ivan: I'm like, yes, they're excellent. They're fantastic.
Sam: Okay. okay we are done thank you everybody have a great week and we will talk
Sam: to you next time goodbye bye.
Sam: Hey, well, it's Sam from the future here, and I know several times during the
Sam: show I asked for, you know, people to chime in on the Slack and maybe elsewhere
Sam: on what I should do about my car.
Sam: But, yeah, less than 12 hours after I recorded that and before I'm putting the
Sam: episode out, I actually already bought the car.
Sam: And I did indeed get an Ioniq 5. so it's been home almost 12 hours now i i drove
Sam: it home i parked it i went to sleep i edited the podcast so i've only actually
Sam: driven the new car once so far so far so good i like it.
Sam: Anyway yeah i already bought it so if you have any thoughts feel free to chime
Sam: in anyway but as a bonus of actually getting to the end of the episode,
Sam: you know that I already did this.
Sam: Yeah, so I, yeah, I recorded the show, did a couple other things,
Sam: then my wife was in touch with somebody she knows from her work that owns a dealership,
Sam: owns a Hyundai dealership, and we were there shortly thereafter,
Sam: did a test drive, they set up the deal for us, and of course they treated us
Sam: well because they're a friend of my wife,
Sam: and we did all the stuff.
Sam: I went back and forth with Yvonne and text a few times to make sure we had a
Sam: good deal and we were doing something that made sense. But yeah, the car is bought.
Sam: Yeah, so there we go. Thanks all. Bye for real.