WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:03.930 Good morning, Mr. Bo. Hello. Good afternoon for you. 00:00:05.990 --> 00:00:08.650 Well, that's volume is very low. Can you talk again? 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:10.350 Hello, hello, hello. 00:00:10.730 --> 00:00:13.150 Okay, yeah, my volume was very low over here. 00:00:13.630 --> 00:00:14.750 Okay, let me... 00:00:14.750 --> 00:00:18.830 Okay, so Manu has a birthday party this afternoon, so... 00:00:19.810 --> 00:00:20.710 Limited time? 00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:21.650 Yeah. 00:00:21.970 --> 00:00:28.050 Okay. Let's get this thing started. When's your drop-dead time for ending, so I can watch the clock? 00:00:28.730 --> 00:00:33.170 Let's just try to make it, you know, let's just try to keep it under 90 minutes. 00:00:33.370 --> 00:00:38.110 I'm going to skip doing a butt first so we don't get dragged too long. 00:00:38.710 --> 00:00:40.550 Okay, so 1130 my time. 00:00:40.850 --> 00:00:41.330 Yeah. 00:00:41.970 --> 00:00:47.170 Okay. Okey dokey, let's get going. Blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:48.730 He turned 13 yesterday. 00:00:50.370 --> 00:00:52.410 That's got to be a lie. There's no way. 00:00:52.870 --> 00:00:53.990 I wish it were. 00:00:57.670 --> 00:01:02.790 Okay here we go congratulations on having a teenager god yeah, 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:31.440 Welcome to Curmudgeon's Corner for Saturday, August 2nd, 2025. 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:36.320 It's just before 17 UTC as we're starting to record right now. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.360 I'm Sam Mentor, Yvonne Bowes here. Hello, Yvonne. 00:01:39.940 --> 00:01:41.760 Hi. Hola. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:50.180 So, as usual, our plan will be to do a quick segment on non-newsy stuff. 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:54.380 I have a couple movies Yvonne is skipping because he needs to get out of here. 00:01:54.380 --> 00:02:02.560 I will make just one quick comment, which is the only thing that I can comment, 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:08.420 well, comment is that I crossed through immigration twice this week. Yes. 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:10.320 How many times were you arrested? 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:17.920 I was not arrested. I will say, though, that immigration in my—I crossed immigration 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:22.740 in Puerto Rico to go from the Dominican Republic into Puerto Rico, 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:24.840 which that was very uneventful. 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:29.000 There's nobody there, and right now there aren't that many international flights 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:33.520 going to San Juan, so it's, you know, that was uneventful. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:39.120 But when I got back to Miami, I did get through quickly because I still have 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:43.540 global entry, so I can get through it relatively quickly. 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:48.980 But they changed some of the process for global entry, which is a little bit weird. 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:53.160 It still went fast, but holy shit, that place was chaotic. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:00.240 I mean, that was, it's the chaos that I expect sometimes to see around the holidays 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.340 and something like that when a lot of people are traveling. 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:15.680 But for a regular just Thursday early evening holy shit what a chaotic immigration 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.480 area I mean I see people like get, 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:26.800 something bad happened it was just the the lines were worse than i ever remember 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.000 and i'm assuming that's because they're just being more, 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:36.420 assholic about the whole thing yes um and um that. 00:03:36.420 --> 00:03:38.240 Is the assumption i would make too. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:44.200 But but you know the global entry part was you know uneventful so because you've. 00:03:44.200 --> 00:03:48.900 Got yeah you're a u.s citizen you've got global entry you've got your path by 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:51.220 the way some Some countries, they're not hassling you. 00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:56.760 No, no. Yeah. Because global entry, hell, I don't even have to show my passport to go to global entry. 00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.400 It's just, it's right now completely facial recognition. 00:04:01.160 --> 00:04:05.340 You scan your picture, you know, that you, you, that you walk up to a kiosk 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:09.500 that recognizes your face, an agent, you know, then, then you, 00:04:09.600 --> 00:04:12.720 you get on this line where an agent goes and says, uh, Ivan, yeah. 00:04:12.820 --> 00:04:16.240 Looks at the picture, compares you. Just they double check and just let you go. That's it. 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.260 That's all that happens. because it used to be that you had to 00:04:19.260 --> 00:04:22.220 scan your passport and do all sorts of 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:25.640 things hell i don't even have to fill a customs form anymore 00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:28.420 the customs declaration or anything i don't feel 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:31.460 a declaration it's just walk up do that 00:04:31.460 --> 00:04:38.380 and done so that that gets that done relatively quickly but but man it was just 00:04:38.380 --> 00:04:45.180 it just looked like sheer chaos so that was the only thing that i i got And 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:51.420 it's the first time I've had to cross through immigration since the new regime. 00:04:52.640 --> 00:04:58.880 And it is correct. You know, it is correct to call it now a regime. 00:04:58.880 --> 00:05:02.780 I don't see any other proper adjective. 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:06.880 Yeah. Yes. Okay. 00:05:07.260 --> 00:05:08.560 So anyway, so that's it. 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:15.360 Shall we go? I got my two movies and then we can move on. We can do my two movies really quick. 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:21.340 Like, we will not allow extended discussion on either of you. 00:05:21.340 --> 00:05:26.060 The reason is my son has his birthday party this afternoon. He's turning 13. 00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:28.640 So, therefore, I need to skedaddle. 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:33.540 Absolutely. And, you know, important milestone. Important milestone. 00:05:34.020 --> 00:05:38.300 Now a teenager is now going to cause you unknown amounts of trouble. 00:05:38.540 --> 00:05:40.420 Fuck me. Jesus Christ. 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:50.060 Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so the first of my movies is another one of these AFI top 00:05:50.060 --> 00:05:53.940 100 movies I've been working my way down through since 1998. 00:05:55.340 --> 00:06:02.360 In real life, you know, not this list, we're actually in, the next one I watch 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:04.920 will be number three. So I'm almost at the end. 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:11.900 Okay. But this is number 17 from the 1998 list, which, interestingly, 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:18.860 they re-ranked it in 2007. It dropped all the way to 65 for the 2007 list. 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:20.540 That's a steep devaluation. 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:27.440 Yeah. So I guess they determined there were a bunch of things that somehow in 00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:35.240 the nine years between 1998 and 2007 made it less wonderful, I guess. 00:06:35.980 --> 00:06:41.400 Anyway, the movie was The African Queen from 1977. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:42.800 Okay. 00:06:43.780 --> 00:06:48.040 Actually, sorry. No, no, no, no, no. African Queen from 1951. 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:54.320 1951. I misread. There was a television version of this in 1977, 00:06:54.320 --> 00:06:55.920 but that is not what I watched. 00:06:56.440 --> 00:06:56.760 Okay. 00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:05.080 So, look, this is, I don't know. Like, I'm thinking maybe the 65 is better than 00:07:05.080 --> 00:07:08.140 the 17, okay? It was a fine movie. 00:07:08.380 --> 00:07:10.640 It was based on a 1935. 00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:12.720 I think it was just overrated when they first did the... 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.140 I don't know. Look, here's the thing. 00:07:16.170 --> 00:07:23.410 Look, the plot, let me read you the beginning of the plot from Wikipedia, of course. 00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:28.290 Samuel Sayre and his sister Rose are English Methodist missionaries in German 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:30.470 East Africa in August 1914. 00:07:31.190 --> 00:07:35.550 Their mail and supplies are delivered by a small steamboat named the African 00:07:35.550 --> 00:07:40.170 Queen, helmed by the rough-and-ready Canadian mechanic Charlie Allnut, 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:44.850 whose coarse behavior they stiffly tolerate. Yes, Allnut. 00:07:46.210 --> 00:07:50.710 When Charlie warns the sires that war has broken out between Germany and Britain 00:07:50.710 --> 00:07:56.490 they choose to remain in Kungdu only to witness German colonial troops burn 00:07:56.490 --> 00:07:59.910 down the village and herd the villagers away to be pressed into service, 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:03.770 when Samuel protests he is struck by a soldier and 00:08:03.770 --> 00:08:06.990 soon becomes delirious with fever dying shortly 00:08:06.990 --> 00:08:11.730 afterwards Charlie helps Rose bury her brother and they escape in the African 00:08:11.730 --> 00:08:19.390 queen and then the rest is what happens to them as they try to get out of German 00:08:19.390 --> 00:08:24.790 West Africa and back to British-controlled territory or whatever. 00:08:25.770 --> 00:08:33.530 That's the plot of the movie. Let me give you one particular thing you can imagine 00:08:33.530 --> 00:08:36.970 might be one of the things why this did not age well. 00:08:37.370 --> 00:08:44.370 A 1950s movie set in 1914 14, Africa. 00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:48.570 Sounds like it could be quite racist. 00:08:49.990 --> 00:08:53.310 There are definitely racist components here. 00:08:53.950 --> 00:08:59.850 You know, there's just the natives, when they are portrayed, 00:09:00.190 --> 00:09:04.790 are not really portrayed as people, you know, is the fundamental thing. 00:09:05.010 --> 00:09:07.430 You know, they're sort of running around, they're doing their thing, 00:09:07.570 --> 00:09:11.590 they're like hooping and hollering. And, you know, they, they are not really, 00:09:11.850 --> 00:09:13.430 they're not characters. 00:09:13.650 --> 00:09:17.590 They're not like a significant part of things. They're just sort of background 00:09:17.590 --> 00:09:20.750 of, oh my God, they're in wild Africa, you know? 00:09:21.870 --> 00:09:24.790 And, you know, other, you know, 00:09:24.990 --> 00:09:32.170 and so, yes, I, I imagine this is one of the reasons why from the late 1990s 00:09:32.170 --> 00:09:37.050 to the early 2000s, this was dropped a bit in the, in the rankings. 00:09:37.050 --> 00:09:41.990 Having said that, you know, there's still like, it's an interesting dynamic 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:43.570 between the two main characters. 00:09:43.570 --> 00:09:49.830 It's got the whole sort of thing of the sort of uptight religious woman and 00:09:49.830 --> 00:09:55.530 the sort of wild macho river guy, 00:09:55.830 --> 00:09:59.870 you know, and, you know, they, you know. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:05.820 Fall for each other as you would expect and then there's some like world war 00:10:05.820 --> 00:10:11.120 two or sorry world war one background stuff between like what's going on between 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:17.920 the british and the and the germans and the you know the war background stuff 00:10:17.920 --> 00:10:20.920 because they get involved in the back and forth with that. 00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:27.680 And i i would say i'm giving it a thumb sideways it was fine i'm not sure it 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:31.400 deserves number 17 on this list. Frankly, I don't know. Well, obviously. 00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:35.500 I don't know if it really deserves 65. Apparently a lot of people agreed with 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:38.920 you because they dropped it like a rock the next time around. 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:45.260 Yeah, I'm not sure if it really deserves 67 or 65 or whatever the hell it was I said. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:49.540 But, you know, 65. 00:10:50.040 --> 00:10:53.680 It was an okay movie. It was entertaining. 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:57.600 I laughed at a few moments. The dynamics between these two were comical. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:00.960 It was sort of 1955 stylized, too. 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:08.640 You know, if you think about old movies, it's not going for realism per se. 00:11:08.660 --> 00:11:13.080 They're sort of exaggerated characters, and that's fine. You know, anyway. 00:11:13.740 --> 00:11:17.180 That's all my thoughts on this one. Do you have any thoughts on this one? 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:20.300 I'm guessing you've probably been scanning the Wikipedia page. 00:11:20.380 --> 00:11:25.280 I never watched this movie. No, I decided not to scan the Wikipedia page on 00:11:25.280 --> 00:11:30.640 it. But I, I, I, but I've never heard, I, I, you know, no, I had heard of them. 00:11:30.680 --> 00:11:34.560 Oh, I should mention since I didn't, it's Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, 00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:41.880 which of course that's part of why, like, this is a famous, like two famous actors from that era. 00:11:42.260 --> 00:11:46.520 Extremely famous. I mean, there are multiple movies on this list that is. 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:50.280 You know. And who are famous for like their interactions as well. 00:11:50.540 --> 00:11:50.620 Right. 00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:52.760 And so, this is undoubtedly a big 00:11:52.760 --> 00:11:55.720 part of why it was on the list was just because it was the two of them. 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:56.940 Okay. 00:11:57.580 --> 00:11:58.020 Anyway. 00:11:58.800 --> 00:12:02.820 Well. All right. So, thumbs sideways on this movie, right? 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:09.220 Yes. Thumbs sideways. All right. And the next up is? Jurassic Park 3. 00:12:09.940 --> 00:12:10.220 Yeah. 00:12:10.300 --> 00:12:13.140 I previewed that these two would be the movies last week. 00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:15.480 I say again. 00:12:16.300 --> 00:12:17.980 You never made it past the first two. 00:12:18.540 --> 00:12:23.900 Never. I mean, and again, the second one I didn't even watch I Know in its entirety. 00:12:24.970 --> 00:12:31.030 I'm pretty sure I never did. I watched bits and pieces of it when it was on 00:12:31.030 --> 00:12:35.370 linear movie channels back in the day. 00:12:36.110 --> 00:12:39.950 But it never attracted me watching it from beginning to end. 00:12:40.390 --> 00:12:45.070 I just didn't find the, I just didn't pique my interest. 00:12:45.810 --> 00:12:51.250 So, three is like, I mean, shit, if I could complete two, forget three. 00:12:51.590 --> 00:12:53.570 It's kind of like Fast and the Furious. 00:12:54.410 --> 00:12:57.730 I watched the first one. I've never even, I don't, I have no, 00:12:57.830 --> 00:12:59.910 I know there was like 10 of them or something like that. 00:13:00.210 --> 00:13:05.470 I don't think I've watched intentionally a minute of any past the first one. 00:13:06.090 --> 00:13:13.830 Well, Jurassic Park, as you know, just last month released their seventh. So they're on seven now. 00:13:14.570 --> 00:13:17.530 Yeah, that's right. For God, that's right. Jesus. 00:13:18.410 --> 00:13:24.350 And I have not watched past three. Like, this is as far as I've ever gotten, 00:13:24.410 --> 00:13:26.850 so I will probably eventually watch the rest. 00:13:27.050 --> 00:13:31.250 But, you know, look, okay, I will once again read the first two paragraphs of 00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:34.850 the plot summary from Wikipedia, and then give my further thoughts. 00:13:38.050 --> 00:13:42.910 Paleontologist Alan Grant struggles to secure funding for his Velociraptor research, 00:13:43.050 --> 00:13:45.430 where he attempts to prove his hypothesis. 00:13:45.670 --> 00:13:48.470 They were intellectually and socially advanced. 00:13:49.270 --> 00:13:53.150 Instead, he finds himself rebuffing the public's obsession with the events on 00:13:53.150 --> 00:13:59.310 Isla Nublar and the InGen Incident in San Diego. That's the first two movies. 00:13:59.790 --> 00:14:04.570 He receives encouragement to continue from his now-married ex-girlfriend, 00:14:04.750 --> 00:14:11.830 Ellie Sattler, and his assistant, Billy Brennan, who uses 3D printing to replicate a velociraptor larynx. 00:14:12.490 --> 00:14:17.730 Wealthy couple Paul and Amanda Kirby offered to fund his research in return 00:14:17.730 --> 00:14:23.590 for a guided aerial tour of Isla Sorna, claiming they have permission to fly there. 00:14:24.530 --> 00:14:28.490 Alan reluctantly agrees, flying there with Billy, two of the Kirby's mercenary 00:14:28.490 --> 00:14:32.310 associates, Udesky and Cooper, and their pilot Nash. 00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:38.730 When the Kirby's try to have Nash land the plane, Alan protests and is knocked unconscious by Cooper. 00:14:39.010 --> 00:14:44.430 He awakens to find they have landed, and the Kirby's refuse to leave until a 00:14:44.430 --> 00:14:46.290 Spinosaurus approaches them. 00:14:46.610 --> 00:14:51.870 They attempt to escape, but the dinosaur attacks their plane during takeoff and kills Cooper. 00:14:51.870 --> 00:14:54.790 The plane crashes in the forest and the 00:14:54.790 --> 00:14:58.210 spinosaurus kills nash and swallows paul's 00:14:58.210 --> 00:15:01.530 satellite phone the survivors flee encountering 00:15:01.530 --> 00:15:04.770 a tyrannosaurus which is promptly defeated by the spinosaurus 00:15:04.770 --> 00:15:09.430 as the humans escape and then of course the rest of their adventures on the 00:15:09.430 --> 00:15:14.450 island continue there is a revelation on the motives of the rich people who 00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:22.070 brought them here in the first place etc etc etc and yeah i i'm sorry you. 00:15:22.070 --> 00:15:23.690 Know you just you just described. 00:15:23.690 --> 00:15:26.030 This and you. 00:15:26.030 --> 00:15:35.550 Know i am 100 confident i i no clue i i had no idea that this movie was about 00:15:35.550 --> 00:15:40.510 had any of those plot points nothing nothing zero. 00:15:40.510 --> 00:15:44.390 You might have guessed it was about dinosaurs that's. 00:15:44.390 --> 00:15:47.770 About the only part I could have guessed correctly, yes. That there were some 00:15:47.770 --> 00:15:51.650 humans and dinosaurs. That I could have guessed, yes. Other than that. 00:15:52.550 --> 00:15:56.030 Yeah, look, here's the thing. I'll give it another thumb sideways. 00:15:56.570 --> 00:16:04.570 It was fine. It was what you expect from a movie with humans running around with dinosaurs. 00:16:06.170 --> 00:16:13.070 But, you know, it was not. I think I save thumbs down for the movies I truly hate. 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:23.010 You know where i'm like not only did i was it blah but it was actually distasteful 00:16:23.010 --> 00:16:32.970 and i regret ever having wasted my time watching it and i came out of it feeling you know, 00:16:33.790 --> 00:16:38.890 mad that the movie exists that's what i save thumbs down for this this is a 00:16:38.890 --> 00:16:41.070 thumb sideways is it was just sort of like, 00:16:42.670 --> 00:16:43.550 okay, generic, 00:16:44.770 --> 00:16:50.690 dinosaurs chasing humans around as the humans try to get out formulae whatever 00:16:50.690 --> 00:17:00.510 you know it was a it was it's only 92 minutes long so it's not one of these mega like two minutes. 00:17:00.510 --> 00:17:05.870 Long that's awfully short i mean especially i think the original jurassic park 00:17:05.870 --> 00:17:08.030 was over two hours for sure. 00:17:08.030 --> 00:17:14.450 Right now now you're gonna have to make me check it i'm gonna have to yeah it 00:17:14.450 --> 00:17:16.930 was 127 minutes the original yeah. 00:17:16.930 --> 00:17:20.730 It was a yeah it was a long movie i mean what the heck. 00:17:20.730 --> 00:17:28.130 And jurassic park 2 was 129 minutes so this was at the time this was the shortest 00:17:28.130 --> 00:17:30.610 jurassic yeah it may still be i don't, 00:17:32.190 --> 00:17:35.010 but is it you know if you want to kill 00:17:35.010 --> 00:17:37.730 an hour and a half it was fine to kill an 00:17:37.730 --> 00:17:43.050 hour and a half you know it i wasn't upset by it but you know there are plenty 00:17:43.050 --> 00:17:47.530 of better ways you could spend an hour and a half but you know if you're bored 00:17:47.530 --> 00:17:51.750 and you just want to stick a movie on and and watch it like it is fine like 00:17:51.750 --> 00:17:55.910 i don't regret i don't regret having watched it i'm not upset by having watched 00:17:55.910 --> 00:17:57.390 it. It just wasn't anything special. 00:17:57.530 --> 00:18:01.630 Completely routine, sort of by the numbers. 00:18:02.610 --> 00:18:03.770 Dinosaurs chase people. 00:18:05.270 --> 00:18:07.410 Some people die. Some people live. 00:18:08.930 --> 00:18:11.970 Obstacles in the way as they try to get out. You know, I'm... 00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:16.810 There you go. Okay. That's all I got. Shall we move on? That's all you got. 00:18:16.810 --> 00:18:20.130 Take a break and do news stuff? 00:18:20.810 --> 00:18:21.310 Okay. 00:18:22.990 --> 00:18:27.150 So break time. Here we go. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:18:30.250 --> 00:18:38.070 You're listening to this podcast. Do you like it? No. Do you want to support the show? No. 00:18:39.230 --> 00:18:43.530 Well, after you have subscribed to the show, followed us on Facebook, 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:50.410 and told all your friends they should be listening to, what else can you do? I won't subscribe! 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:57.070 You can help fund our Patreon at patreon.com slash curmudgeonscorner. 00:18:58.150 --> 00:19:03.150 Patreon is a way you can throw us a few bucks a month to help out with the expenses of the show. 00:19:03.150 --> 00:19:08.110 You know, web hosting, equipment, a little bit of advertising to promote the 00:19:08.110 --> 00:19:13.170 show, and maybe every once in a while some much-needed sedatives for Yvonne. 00:19:13.930 --> 00:19:17.490 At different contribution levels, you can get a mention on the show, 00:19:17.650 --> 00:19:22.170 our Curmudgeon's Corner postcard, or even a Curmudgeon's Corner mug. 00:19:22.410 --> 00:19:24.590 Fun stuff. Not fun. 00:19:25.070 --> 00:19:29.930 In any case, the contributions help tell us that you enjoy and appreciate the 00:19:29.930 --> 00:19:33.430 show. I really, really hate curmudgeon's corner! 00:19:34.070 --> 00:19:35.890 Are we worth a buck a month? No! 00:19:36.730 --> 00:19:42.430 Five bucks a month? No! Or if you are nuts about us, maybe even more? 00:19:43.730 --> 00:19:46.270 100 billion! Billion dollars! 00:19:47.110 --> 00:19:50.410 Even though you don't have anywhere near a billion dollars! 00:19:51.010 --> 00:19:56.510 If we're worth anything to you at all, send it our way at patreon.com slash 00:19:56.510 --> 00:20:02.750 curmudgeon's corner. Alex hates, really, really hates, Carmudgeons Corner! 00:20:03.230 --> 00:20:07.630 That's really mean, isn't it? But I hate Carmudgeons Corner. But I really do! 00:20:09.820 --> 00:20:14.540 Okay, so before we move on, though, like since that was about the Patreon and 00:20:14.540 --> 00:20:18.120 everything like that, have you received the postcards yet? 00:20:18.600 --> 00:20:25.580 I actually, I got back from my trip and I just grabbed the envelope from the mail yesterday. 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:30.780 There you go. So this is, we owe a couple people postcards and I have. 00:20:30.780 --> 00:20:37.520 I just showed, for those of you not watching that video, I showed Sam the envelope on video. 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:43.280 Yes. Yeah, and I put my little tiny notes on the postcards, and now they're 00:20:43.280 --> 00:20:44.820 with Yvonne to put his notes. 00:20:45.100 --> 00:20:46.680 What was I supposed to put on these postcards? 00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:49.780 Just a little note saying thank you or whatever. 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:52.960 Oh, okay, right. Okay, yeah, that's it. Okay, all right, got it. 00:20:53.140 --> 00:20:57.240 You know, or you can do something more creative. You can do whatever you want with them. 00:20:57.420 --> 00:21:03.920 I could, you know, apply on it like some glue. 00:21:04.820 --> 00:21:08.460 Sure, sure. That would work well in the mail on a postcard. 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:09.300 Yeah. 00:21:09.520 --> 00:21:13.060 You know, just put glue on it, stick it in the mailbox, see what else attaches 00:21:13.060 --> 00:21:14.900 to it on the way. Right. You know? 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:18.400 Now, if you do anything interesting with them, take a picture. 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:20.300 Okay. And share before you. 00:21:20.380 --> 00:21:24.140 Like, I'll see what I, I'll see what my creativity brings to. 00:21:24.320 --> 00:21:27.080 Or you can do what I did and give a very. Which my creativity sucks. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:31.740 My, my, mine was very boring. Maybe I'll get. It was like, thank you for listening. 00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:37.020 In order to make it make it even more boring maybe I'll get chat GPT to write what I'm going to say. 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:44.780 There you go exciting stuff anyway because we mentioned the Patreon and at various 00:21:44.780 --> 00:21:48.100 levels you get various things one of those levels is a postcard and we owed 00:21:48.100 --> 00:21:50.040 a couple people a postcard for like months. 00:21:50.040 --> 00:21:54.920 It's a very nice postcard yeah it's good you've got a picture of us you know 00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:58.940 and stuff it's nice yeah I mean I don't know if that's actually nice now that 00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:00.660 I think about it but you know it is what it is. 00:22:02.600 --> 00:22:07.200 Okay von so start us out what newsy thing do you want to talk about first this 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:09.160 week there's been lots going on. 00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:15.860 You know as i i was checking my apple news app on the computer yeah and the 00:22:15.860 --> 00:22:18.760 first headline there grabbed grabbed right now. 00:22:18.760 --> 00:22:19.620 This very second. 00:22:19.620 --> 00:22:22.480 As we're recording yeah you know because i i 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:25.680 did mention some stuff different stuff on 00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:28.680 i said you know in this in 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:31.780 the topics we put down to tariffs i put 00:22:31.780 --> 00:22:34.740 down about jobs more epstein i i 00:22:34.740 --> 00:22:39.320 said more stuff about reshoring you know uh job reshoring but i was looking 00:22:39.320 --> 00:22:44.140 at the economic stuff but then here's the thing uh this headline from nbc news 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:53.040 summed it up tariffs alarming job numbers and a high-profile firing a wild week for the economy, 00:22:54.530 --> 00:23:00.390 And that, I think, from the economic side, is what summed up this week. This week was insane. 00:23:01.690 --> 00:23:07.150 You know, this week was insane. And the whole thing is, the main problem with 00:23:07.150 --> 00:23:11.330 it is, it's all self-inflicted. 00:23:12.290 --> 00:23:17.890 The entire reason the week was wild, it's not because, you know, 00:23:18.670 --> 00:23:22.610 certain things happened that they had to react to. 00:23:22.610 --> 00:23:29.570 No, this is all due to the policies of disadministration. 00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:33.870 Isn't that pretty much true for everything since January 20th? 00:23:34.250 --> 00:23:45.890 Yeah, but look, I will tell you that outside of the financial crisis, Or like this, 00:23:46.270 --> 00:23:52.890 you know, because the dot-com implosion was an impact back in the early 2000s. 00:23:53.350 --> 00:24:02.230 But what really triggered more, you know, economic issues in that downturn, 00:24:02.390 --> 00:24:05.750 early 2000, 2001, was September 11th. 00:24:05.930 --> 00:24:11.470 Okay, so that was a huge, huge external shock, okay, we had. 00:24:11.470 --> 00:24:18.510 And also the Enron and WorldCom financial scandals, okay? 00:24:18.850 --> 00:24:27.850 That happened where massive fraud was uncovered on two of the darlings of the 00:24:27.850 --> 00:24:29.250 stock market at the time. 00:24:29.930 --> 00:24:37.730 You know, and so those things were things that the administration had to react 00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:40.670 that were external factors, okay? Okay. 00:24:41.870 --> 00:24:49.990 Everything that just happened this week, the tariffs are self-imposed. 00:24:50.690 --> 00:24:51.190 Okay? Yes. 00:24:51.290 --> 00:24:57.110 They're the ones that started this wild ride with the global economy with the stupid tariffs, okay? 00:24:57.910 --> 00:25:03.990 The job numbers are a result of the tariffs, okay? 00:25:05.510 --> 00:25:07.850 And the dope bullshit. 00:25:07.850 --> 00:25:12.430 Before moving on from that, like explain a little bit more why jobs are. 00:25:12.450 --> 00:25:15.170 Well, what I'm saying, well, what I'm saying is that when I'm reading, 00:25:15.310 --> 00:25:18.530 I'm going first just through the headline of the things that happened. 00:25:18.670 --> 00:25:21.910 We can get the details about that later. But we're talking about job numbers 00:25:21.910 --> 00:25:28.450 and the firing is also a result of this administration, 00:25:28.450 --> 00:25:35.990 the way it handles everything, where the only thing that matters is loyalty. 00:25:36.890 --> 00:25:42.090 And so, and they don't want to hear bad news. So how do they deal with bad news? 00:25:45.350 --> 00:25:48.510 The, they fire the person coming up with the numbers. 00:25:48.810 --> 00:25:51.910 Right? Or like, what happened to Tulsi? 00:25:52.110 --> 00:25:58.790 What happened to Tulsi? She went and she said, Hey, Iran's not a threat. What happened then? 00:26:00.910 --> 00:26:05.390 They started distancing her and then she went and produced like a report on, 00:26:06.090 --> 00:26:08.890 Russia or something to like said what they. 00:26:08.890 --> 00:26:09.510 Wanted to hear. 00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:12.350 Yes. So she learned her lesson. 00:26:12.570 --> 00:26:16.610 Right. She was like, what am I talking about? Wait, I'm supposed to produce 00:26:16.610 --> 00:26:20.050 actual information? No, I just got to say whatever the fuck they want to hear. 00:26:20.350 --> 00:26:25.190 And I presume, I mean, they've, you know, the replacement at, 00:26:25.310 --> 00:26:27.970 what's it called? The BLS, Bureau of Labor and Statistics. 00:26:28.290 --> 00:26:34.170 The replacement is, of course, going to be like, okay, we got the message. Only good numbers. 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:41.330 So, yeah, I mean, you know, and the whole thing that happened is that, 00:26:41.610 --> 00:26:47.050 you know, the last few months that I've talked about job numbers coming out, 00:26:47.310 --> 00:26:58.350 a couple of times we had had in advance ADP that does a report on private sector jobs. 00:26:58.770 --> 00:27:02.450 ADP is that payroll company that processes tons of paychecks. 00:27:02.450 --> 00:27:08.050 Which is the largest processor of payroll in the United States. Okay. 00:27:08.270 --> 00:27:12.650 I mean, they do payroll for so many companies. 00:27:12.870 --> 00:27:16.650 As a matter of fact, I was just literally talking to a customer this week that 00:27:16.650 --> 00:27:19.850 did a product that competed with ADP this week. 00:27:19.950 --> 00:27:24.490 And basically, they told me that they were exiting the business. 00:27:24.910 --> 00:27:26.390 Because there's no point in competing. 00:27:26.770 --> 00:27:30.650 Yes. And basically, you know, handing it over to ADP. 00:27:31.480 --> 00:27:34.400 They made some agreement with them related to that. 00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:39.900 So that's how big they are in this space. And the reality is that it's a space 00:27:39.900 --> 00:27:43.720 that is consolidated and it's a space that margins are thin. 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:50.320 OK, it's payroll processing. You want to talk about the dullest fucking thing that there is. 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:55.860 This is basically just you get these files, you calculate the pay, 00:27:56.100 --> 00:28:01.140 you take out the taxes, you you set you submit the fucking paychecks. 00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:04.000 And then you people get W-2s, okay? 00:28:05.260 --> 00:28:14.480 Basically all there is. And so they have, because they have so many customers, okay? 00:28:14.760 --> 00:28:20.640 They have been doing, for the last few years, I wonder how long it's been. It's been a few years. 00:28:20.800 --> 00:28:28.180 This private jobs report that kind of like, that comes out usually just before 00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:31.380 the government labor report. 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:41.260 OK, and the last few months, the report from ADP was that this economy, the jobs market was bad. 00:28:41.760 --> 00:28:45.040 OK, that's what they had been reporting the last couple of months. 00:28:45.120 --> 00:28:47.660 Now, remember that the one thing is they only track private sector. 00:28:48.020 --> 00:28:52.480 OK, but a couple of times the report had come out the last couple of months from the government. 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:57.460 The one thing that always stood out to me is like, huh, they're showing a lot 00:28:57.460 --> 00:29:01.180 of public sector hiring in this report. 00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:06.840 That masked the bad private sector jobs report okay. 00:29:06.840 --> 00:29:13.000 Well and wait a second let me just ask a question there a lot of public sector 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:18.740 hiring isn't like trump like firing everybody at the well but you gotta remember listen. 00:29:18.740 --> 00:29:21.580 But but part of it part of this was, 00:29:22.550 --> 00:29:27.310 You got to remember that they do this. You remember, it's not just federal government. 00:29:27.790 --> 00:29:29.270 There's also state and local. 00:29:29.850 --> 00:29:33.890 Right. So who knows, right? I mean, exactly where the data is coming from. 00:29:34.090 --> 00:29:38.010 But one of the things about these reports is that first they do some statistical analysis. 00:29:38.250 --> 00:29:43.650 They do some stuff. And then usually then later, these reports get corrected 00:29:43.650 --> 00:29:45.970 when all the data actually comes in. 00:29:46.150 --> 00:29:52.470 So you get a preliminary number. And then later, when all the information comes 00:29:52.470 --> 00:29:56.290 in, they do a corrected number, okay? 00:29:56.590 --> 00:30:02.550 So the last, this report, they issued corrections for the last couple of months. 00:30:02.810 --> 00:30:09.490 And those corrections eliminated a lot of the supposed job gains the last couple of months. 00:30:09.490 --> 00:30:16.990 Were really we just had with this report now the worst three-month stretch for 00:30:16.990 --> 00:30:20.450 job creation since take a guess sam. 00:30:20.450 --> 00:30:24.190 Pandemic era trump's last administration who. 00:30:24.190 --> 00:30:25.430 Was president then sam. 00:30:25.430 --> 00:30:32.470 Well apparently biden because every time you yeah every time you hear about 00:30:32.470 --> 00:30:40.090 that stuff it's always biden you know these days but or obama yeah like no it 00:30:40.090 --> 00:30:42.190 was uh it was donald trump but it was. 00:30:42.190 --> 00:30:44.910 Donald trump so right now we just had. 00:30:44.910 --> 00:30:53.370 But wait no wait wait yvonne what i have i have heard that these numbers were 00:30:53.370 --> 00:30:59.990 made up by a democratic appointed yeah person who was out to make the trump 00:30:59.990 --> 00:31:02.790 administration look bad and so these are all bullshit. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:09.740 Now yeah sure uh-huh right and so the one thing is yes that's exactly what they 00:31:09.740 --> 00:31:14.960 said and they proceeded to fire this person who by the way that position actually 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.360 requires senate confirmation and. 00:31:18.360 --> 00:31:21.180 I believe i saw that this is 00:31:21.180 --> 00:31:24.980 one of the people who's converted but converted confirmed by 00:31:24.980 --> 00:31:27.840 like 80 something votes it was a it was 00:31:27.840 --> 00:31:31.160 a bipartisan everybody was like yeah they're good 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:35.160 because this is one of those positions that is intended 00:31:35.160 --> 00:31:38.300 to be a technocrat intended to be 00:31:38.300 --> 00:31:41.980 somebody who's not political who you're 00:31:41.980 --> 00:31:44.640 hiring them because they're actually an expert in the 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:49.600 field and they know what they're doing and blah blah blah and so anyway it was 00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:54.260 80 some votes which isn't like marco rubio's 97 or whatever the hell he got 00:31:54.260 --> 00:32:00.060 but you know it's still pretty good and uh i i've seen a bunch of comments from 00:32:00.060 --> 00:32:03.400 previous office holders of that job, 00:32:04.080 --> 00:32:08.740 from republican administrations including donald trump's first term talking 00:32:08.740 --> 00:32:13.640 about how bad this is and how this is the wrong thing to do and how this person 00:32:13.640 --> 00:32:17.780 is good and blah blah blah yeah so anyway now. 00:32:17.780 --> 00:32:23.600 Now the the numbers with the corrections by the way the numbers what they did 00:32:23.600 --> 00:32:26.960 to kind of match what ADP was publishing. Okay, by the way. 00:32:27.060 --> 00:32:30.300 Right. So what you had, let me make sure I got this right. 00:32:30.580 --> 00:32:37.120 What you had was the private company's numbers that they put out originally 00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:42.160 months ago were actually closer to right than the original government estimates. 00:32:42.360 --> 00:32:43.740 Correct. Yes. 00:32:43.800 --> 00:32:51.040 So if anything, the government was erring in the direction that made it look better first. 00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:53.020 And then corrected it later. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:53.680 Yes. Yes. 00:32:55.820 --> 00:33:00.160 And one of the things that what I've observed happened with this and why this 00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:04.220 happens frequently is because some of those statistical assumptions, 00:33:04.220 --> 00:33:10.560 you know, are based on trends. And the trend had been good on jobs, right? 00:33:11.100 --> 00:33:16.280 Well, because we had, you know, when Trump took over, you know, 00:33:16.380 --> 00:33:21.540 we had had a good job trend, okay? There had been good job creation. 00:33:22.120 --> 00:33:28.220 All of this shit started happening because, you know, we have a psychopath in the White House. 00:33:28.980 --> 00:33:35.320 And so, you know, now all of a sudden, as all the data that they collect came 00:33:35.320 --> 00:33:42.040 in and they made the adjustments, they realized, oh, shit, we're doing bad. Like, really bad. 00:33:43.060 --> 00:33:50.720 Yeah, okay. But at the same time, didn't we have good GDP numbers and stuff like that going on? 00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:59.440 Okay, the GDP number, okay, was also inflated in large part due to the wild 00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:07.100 swings we've had in trade because imports dropped a lot and imports, 00:34:07.300 --> 00:34:10.240 you know, imports dropped by an inordinate amount. 00:34:11.540 --> 00:34:18.680 And imports are a negative on trade. 00:34:18.680 --> 00:34:25.480 But when all of a sudden you've had an artificially low import number, 00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:36.820 basically it was a result of a whole bunch of companies going and front-loading inventory, okay, 00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:39.820 in the earlier months. 00:34:39.820 --> 00:34:44.880 They front-loaded inventory because of the worry about the tariffs, 00:34:45.040 --> 00:34:49.540 and then when the tariffs were announced, then they stopped importing shit. 00:34:49.540 --> 00:34:55.420 But this is just one of these statistical, you know, 00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:04.340 one of these events that is causing the statistical numbers to show poor ported 00:35:04.340 --> 00:35:06.060 strength when what it is, 00:35:06.200 --> 00:35:11.760 it's just showing the wild swings being caused by this trade war. 00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:15.000 So, cause I'll tell you, this is, this is one of those things. 00:35:15.120 --> 00:35:20.320 And we've talked about this before in terms of like timelines and in terms of 00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:22.960 worst case scenario talk and stuff like that. 00:35:23.400 --> 00:35:31.140 But the, the impression for the person who's not into it on a day-to-day basis, 00:35:31.140 --> 00:35:34.000 I think is continuing to be. 00:35:35.080 --> 00:35:40.440 All of these people have been playing chicken little, saying the sky is falling 00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:47.500 since the day Donald Trump was sworn in, but we're not seeing the collapse yet. 00:35:48.280 --> 00:35:51.680 And so they're full of shit. We're seeing some good numbers here. 00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:55.640 We're seeing some good numbers there. Even where we see bad numbers, they're not that bad. 00:35:56.980 --> 00:35:57.940 And so. 00:35:58.220 --> 00:36:01.480 I don't know what the hell they're. Listen, I don't know what the hell they're watching. 00:36:01.480 --> 00:36:09.480 But this week, anybody, almost any company that deals with imports, hard products and shit, 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:17.120 starting announcing multi-billion dollar hits from tariffs in their bottom line. 00:36:17.420 --> 00:36:21.520 The last one to announce, yes, it was Berkshire Hathaway, Ford, 00:36:22.120 --> 00:36:28.600 GM, Stellantis, some company that imports a lot of stuff and sells it online. 00:36:28.600 --> 00:36:37.360 You know, all of them all of a sudden said, we're getting hit one after the 00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:39.780 other. OK, one after the other. 00:36:40.080 --> 00:36:45.380 The companies that didn't get hit are cloud providers. 00:36:46.180 --> 00:36:52.320 OK, people that sell software because they're not tariffed. It's not product. 00:36:52.720 --> 00:36:57.640 It's not copper. There's no steel in it, whatever. So they're not getting hit by this shit. 00:36:57.640 --> 00:36:59.800 Basically, service companies are doing fine. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:05.140 Correct. Service companies are doing fine. And Apple, in large part, 00:37:05.240 --> 00:37:11.900 people believe, even though some are saying, eh, it's not really. 00:37:12.060 --> 00:37:15.520 Some people are front-loading iPhone purchases. 00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:21.120 Now, in Apple's case, they actually had good China numbers. There were a whole 00:37:21.120 --> 00:37:24.320 bunch of other things in it. And some people are saying, well, 00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:28.040 actually, the carriers were getting pretty aggressive with deals. 00:37:28.340 --> 00:37:38.860 So there's more than that. But most every other company that has to import something, 00:37:39.260 --> 00:37:45.560 starting announcing that we're getting substantial profit hits. Okay. 00:37:46.160 --> 00:37:48.720 And Sam, let me tell you something. 00:37:49.340 --> 00:37:54.080 I've been working in corporate America for 30 years. You know, 00:37:54.240 --> 00:37:56.580 around there, almost. Getting closer. 00:37:57.760 --> 00:38:04.320 I've never seen any company I've worked at where they get a $2, 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:06.920 $3 billion hit in the bottom line. 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:12.220 And they just say, we're good. We're not going to take any action. 00:38:12.720 --> 00:38:13.240 Right. 00:38:13.580 --> 00:38:20.760 They're going to do something. Whether it's layoffs, whether it's price increases, 00:38:21.340 --> 00:38:24.960 they're going to do something to offset losing billions. 00:38:25.260 --> 00:38:28.160 They're not going to just sit on their fucking hands and do nothing. 00:38:29.600 --> 00:38:35.220 And, you know, I don't understand who the hell thinks they're just going to sit. 00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:38.280 You know, so, yeah, they're saying, well, I haven't seen the implosion. 00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:41.120 Well, you know, this happens in stages. 00:38:41.360 --> 00:38:47.260 OK, this isn't just, you know, you know, people have like I've said this before. 00:38:48.140 --> 00:38:55.160 Delayed effects. OK, on things people just cannot understand. 00:38:55.880 --> 00:38:56.720 They cannot. 00:38:57.560 --> 00:39:04.860 You know, it's just, it's 90 plus percent of the people are incapable of grasping 00:39:04.860 --> 00:39:10.200 that when you do something in April, they think, oh, nothing blew up. 00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:12.680 And then six months later, kaboom. 00:39:13.200 --> 00:39:16.200 Oh, well, that couldn't have been what happened in April. 00:39:16.340 --> 00:39:21.980 And I'm like, fuck, Jesus Christ, idiot, fucking moron. 00:39:21.980 --> 00:39:27.020 You know, it's amazing our species ever figured out, like, how pregnancy works. 00:39:28.620 --> 00:39:32.400 Yes! You're like, how the fuck did this happen? Wait a minute. 00:39:33.520 --> 00:39:36.240 How come you're having a baby? What the fuck? Whoa! 00:39:37.500 --> 00:39:42.080 Nah, it couldn't have been that. Come on. No. What? Wait, what? No. 00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:46.580 No, no, no. That's impossible. Look at that, of course, the baby. 00:39:46.640 --> 00:39:47.580 What are you talking about? 00:39:48.360 --> 00:39:49.520 Yeah, exactly. 00:39:51.640 --> 00:39:57.060 So, another thing that came out, two things, wait, wait. Powell also announced 00:39:57.060 --> 00:39:59.260 that they're not cutting rates. 00:39:59.720 --> 00:40:00.980 Mm-hmm. Yeah. 00:40:01.480 --> 00:40:04.160 You know, yet. But here's the problem, Sam. 00:40:06.220 --> 00:40:10.000 PCE, which is the, oh, God, it's a whole set. 00:40:10.220 --> 00:40:18.500 PCE is, uh, the PCE is the Personal Consumption Expenditure. 00:40:18.500 --> 00:40:20.820 Let's see. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. Let's see. 00:40:21.700 --> 00:40:24.640 In inflation. Hold on. Let me get... 00:40:25.740 --> 00:40:31.300 Okay. Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. Okay. All right. 00:40:31.640 --> 00:40:32.160 Okay. 00:40:32.460 --> 00:40:36.300 So the PCE is known for capturing inflation or deflation, 00:40:37.770 --> 00:40:45.350 across a range of products that people buy. Okay? That is rising. 00:40:45.770 --> 00:40:46.270 Okay. 00:40:46.410 --> 00:40:52.210 It hit like 2.7. Okay? It's going in the wrong direction. 00:40:52.630 --> 00:40:58.930 And so you've got declining jobs and you've got prices going up. 00:40:59.250 --> 00:41:07.950 So the Fed is caught in a pickle because if you loosen rates, 00:41:08.510 --> 00:41:10.450 it's going to spur inflation. 00:41:10.710 --> 00:41:16.970 The problem right now, specifically in the one market that could be heavily 00:41:16.970 --> 00:41:21.230 influenced by lower rates is housing. Okay? 00:41:21.850 --> 00:41:26.550 Housing demand has been constrained because of high rates. 00:41:27.770 --> 00:41:31.610 Housing demand has also suffered from low inventory. 00:41:32.310 --> 00:41:38.750 And so, if you go with a Greenspanian lowering of rates, okay, 00:41:39.010 --> 00:41:46.610 that fucker would ignite inflation in a way that we haven't seen since the 1970s. 00:41:47.590 --> 00:41:48.910 Oh, that sounds fun. 00:41:49.810 --> 00:41:53.370 That's the problem. And that's the pickle that you're caught in between. 00:41:54.310 --> 00:41:59.530 So this is why Jay Powell is sitting there with his moron in the White House 00:41:59.530 --> 00:42:04.110 and his idiotic advisors yelling at him to cut rates. 00:42:04.250 --> 00:42:08.230 And I'm like, ah, so what the fuck are my choices? 00:42:08.650 --> 00:42:13.890 Hey, I unleash inflation like we haven't seen in decades. 00:42:15.470 --> 00:42:20.050 Or, you know, if I don't do that because he's not cutting tariffs, 00:42:20.270 --> 00:42:27.490 which, by the way, the tariffs are what's causing the employment problems. 00:42:28.750 --> 00:42:32.010 Nothing else. There's nothing else. 00:42:32.310 --> 00:42:36.150 Okay, connect the dots right there. Is it because the higher prices cost less 00:42:36.150 --> 00:42:38.890 sales, cause less revenue, cause sales? 00:42:38.890 --> 00:42:50.190 How can you, as a company, decide to invest right now in a project given the 00:42:50.190 --> 00:42:52.450 uncertainty created by this? 00:42:52.930 --> 00:42:59.730 You are going to hold off on any investment decisions that would be affected 00:42:59.730 --> 00:43:02.270 by these tariffs right now. 00:43:02.270 --> 00:43:11.330 Yeah, you know, nobody is going to rush to go and reshore manufacturing because 00:43:11.330 --> 00:43:12.990 of the policy uncertainty. 00:43:13.630 --> 00:43:18.250 Because what happens if in six months he changes the tariff again? 00:43:19.030 --> 00:43:24.170 And then you spent you're in the middle of spending billions to build this manufacturing 00:43:24.170 --> 00:43:27.590 plant that all of a sudden you're going to have to shove up your ass. 00:43:28.510 --> 00:43:28.750 Yeah. 00:43:29.810 --> 00:43:37.010 Nobody with this much uncertainty is willing to invest and spend. 00:43:37.590 --> 00:43:44.730 If you've got your copper with a 50% tariff, if you've got tariffs on steel, 00:43:45.050 --> 00:43:52.030 if you got tariffs on your products, the first thing you're going to do as it 00:43:52.030 --> 00:43:55.010 hits your bottom line is hold back hiring. 00:43:55.230 --> 00:43:57.410 Because that's the one thing you can control the fastest. 00:43:58.270 --> 00:43:58.630 Right. 00:43:59.730 --> 00:44:01.290 You're going to say, uh-uh-uh. 00:44:02.930 --> 00:44:07.470 We don't know what the fuck is going on. All non-essential hiring. You freeze. 00:44:07.890 --> 00:44:13.350 You delay. You do whatever. That's the first fucking thing you're going to do. 00:44:13.950 --> 00:44:18.410 And until there is, and right now, the tariffs at where they are, 00:44:18.710 --> 00:44:28.190 this week, based on this Friday, are only one-third less than the Liberation Day tariff number. 00:44:28.190 --> 00:44:32.830 So it's still a ridiculously high tariff level. 00:44:33.230 --> 00:44:40.990 Well, and just on how this is being spun again, like, there's a lot, I mean, 00:44:42.050 --> 00:44:47.010 look, people are talking about how much better it is than those Liberation Day 00:44:47.010 --> 00:44:51.290 numbers, as opposed to how much worse it was than where we started. 00:44:51.570 --> 00:44:51.910 Right. 00:44:51.910 --> 00:44:54.710 And it's like, wait a second here. 00:44:55.350 --> 00:44:59.470 This is sort of your classic bait and switch. Like, you know, 00:44:59.810 --> 00:45:05.930 we're going to charge you like $100 for this thing that's normally worth $5. 00:45:06.270 --> 00:45:09.770 So I switched you from a catastrophe to a disaster. 00:45:10.050 --> 00:45:12.530 We're going to cut it to $80. Now you're happy, right? 00:45:13.150 --> 00:45:18.190 Exactly. I mean, that's pretty much it. 00:45:18.830 --> 00:45:24.950 Well, and look, a lot of these countries are sort of, it does seem like there's 00:45:24.950 --> 00:45:30.290 a rush of these people to at least give verbal agreement to these sort of letters 00:45:30.290 --> 00:45:33.570 of like, okay, you're at 15 or whatever. 00:45:34.030 --> 00:45:34.350 Yeah. 00:45:34.550 --> 00:45:38.110 You know, just to like get Trump off their backs and make it not 25. 00:45:38.650 --> 00:45:41.670 Right. And none of these are any actual trade deals. 00:45:42.130 --> 00:45:46.750 Nothing that's been agreed to has been a trade deal. A trade deal is usually 00:45:46.750 --> 00:45:49.390 a 2,000-page document, okay? 00:45:50.110 --> 00:45:55.930 The UK framework that they agreed to recently and framework with Japan, 00:45:56.150 --> 00:45:57.490 Korea is less than 20 pages. 00:45:58.980 --> 00:46:04.900 It's just a framework. It's just, it's just a, I said, it's basically a letter of intent. 00:46:05.520 --> 00:46:05.920 Right. 00:46:07.040 --> 00:46:09.140 And as I explained to people, like. 00:46:09.520 --> 00:46:13.620 With some things in, by the way, like the EU one has, they've already admitted 00:46:13.620 --> 00:46:16.460 some of the things that the EU promised to do isn't like actually. 00:46:16.680 --> 00:46:19.760 That's never going to happen. It's not just the EU. All of them, yes. 00:46:19.780 --> 00:46:24.140 All of them. Look, going back, going back to the trade deals that he made back 00:46:24.140 --> 00:46:29.440 in his first term, all of these were, you know, Trump said, well, 00:46:29.600 --> 00:46:33.100 the deal with Japan includes a 500 billion dollar down payment. 00:46:33.320 --> 00:46:35.680 And everybody was like, down payment. 00:46:35.960 --> 00:46:40.580 The fuck is he talking about this so-called agreement? 00:46:40.580 --> 00:46:45.640 OK, letter that makes this commitment has nothing, 00:46:46.060 --> 00:46:53.920 nothing, nothing to make sure that that that that that headline number that 00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:59.620 they committed to investing happens or doesn't include shit that they were already 00:46:59.620 --> 00:47:02.840 going to do or whatever. It's just bullshit. 00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:12.620 Mm-hmm. I mean, and this goes to, look, this is Trump's regular MO on all kinds of things. 00:47:13.060 --> 00:47:19.980 First of all, he cares about the optics, not the substance, number one. 00:47:19.980 --> 00:47:23.620 So he wants to be able to wave the piece of paper around and say, 00:47:23.700 --> 00:47:26.600 look, we have a deal. It doesn't actually matter what the deal is. 00:47:27.380 --> 00:47:35.180 And and then second you know on tariffs specifically donald trump just wants 00:47:35.180 --> 00:47:39.260 tariffs like he doesn't care if the end result is just every place in the world 00:47:39.260 --> 00:47:43.600 has 15 he just wants the tariffs you know and then average. 00:47:43.600 --> 00:47:47.780 Effective tariff that we had went from somewhere between zero and two percent 00:47:47.780 --> 00:47:51.800 to 18 it's basically like they just added an 18 sales tax. 00:47:51.800 --> 00:48:02.540 Right i mean the But other people pointed out, like, most coverage still does 00:48:02.540 --> 00:48:05.040 not cover it that way. You hear it occasionally. 00:48:05.320 --> 00:48:10.680 But, like, this is the biggest tax increase ever that I remember. 00:48:11.240 --> 00:48:12.040 Ever. 00:48:12.360 --> 00:48:19.000 You know, like, the world where Republicans were anti-tax, I mean. 00:48:19.780 --> 00:48:24.040 Listen, Republicans right now stand for nothing. 00:48:25.560 --> 00:48:29.340 Nothing, nothing, Sam, nothing. 00:48:29.780 --> 00:48:33.620 They don't even stand against pedophilia. Nothing. 00:48:36.320 --> 00:48:37.680 They don't even stand. 00:48:37.960 --> 00:48:45.540 Yeah. I mean, and, and look in this particular case, again, Trump somehow manages 00:48:45.540 --> 00:48:47.160 to finagle this messaging. 00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:56.300 I mean, I'm sure the vast majority of people in this country still think like China pays the tariffs. 00:48:56.580 --> 00:49:01.520 Oh my God. You know, always the dumbest fucking line ever. 00:49:02.420 --> 00:49:09.980 You know, the fact that this is fundamentally a tax that Americans pay on goods they purchase, 00:49:11.100 --> 00:49:17.460 yes, if you are paying attention and watching the right channels and reading 00:49:17.460 --> 00:49:20.280 the right sources, you will hear people say that. 00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:22.940 But I don't think it's penetrated to the general public. 00:49:23.200 --> 00:49:25.820 It's not going to enter their pocketbook. 00:49:25.960 --> 00:49:29.820 Yes. Which, as you said, this is one of those delay factor things. 00:49:29.820 --> 00:49:35.020 Building and building and building. And companies have delayed it, 00:49:35.100 --> 00:49:36.560 Sam, but part of it has been. 00:49:36.640 --> 00:49:39.720 Delayed it and phased it. And phased it. Because this is important, 00:49:39.740 --> 00:49:43.800 too, because there is, if you, 00:49:44.140 --> 00:49:49.140 like, let's say you're jumping the price of something from $10 to $20. 00:49:49.680 --> 00:49:51.440 You're doubling the price. 00:49:51.620 --> 00:49:52.100 Right. 00:49:52.200 --> 00:49:55.460 But if every couple months you increase it by $1. 00:49:56.220 --> 00:50:01.600 So it takes you 10 months or a year to do that doubling and, 00:50:02.570 --> 00:50:06.950 people sort of acclimatize to it. Now, that's still a pretty fast increase. 00:50:07.070 --> 00:50:08.130 They'll probably notice that. 00:50:08.890 --> 00:50:12.810 Listen, they'll start noticing it. Because that was kind of like the price increases 00:50:12.810 --> 00:50:15.790 that we had a couple of years ago. 00:50:16.230 --> 00:50:23.530 You can, if you spread it out long enough, people notice less. 00:50:24.130 --> 00:50:30.250 Now, they still will eventually notice, but it's different than you double it in one day. 00:50:30.250 --> 00:50:33.450 Let me tell you something. For the vast majority of MAGA folks, 00:50:33.670 --> 00:50:38.330 which really are in the lower side of the income spectrum, 00:50:38.690 --> 00:50:46.310 this is a much bigger hit to their income than it is for folks like ourselves. 00:50:46.910 --> 00:50:51.970 They have already started noticing it big time, okay? 00:50:52.090 --> 00:50:58.690 And they will notice it even worse, okay, as this starts going through. 00:50:58.690 --> 00:51:04.550 There is no way that they're not going to notice the kind of pain that's coming. 00:51:04.930 --> 00:51:06.490 Okay. Because it's coming. 00:51:06.750 --> 00:51:10.750 It's coming. The one I've started to hear about in the last couple of weeks, 00:51:10.930 --> 00:51:13.670 echoing the eggs thing from before, is beef. 00:51:14.270 --> 00:51:14.790 Beef. 00:51:14.890 --> 00:51:15.110 You know. 00:51:15.550 --> 00:51:16.770 Beef is soared. 00:51:17.110 --> 00:51:22.170 Beef is soared. And Donald Trump, just one of the ones he announced was even 00:51:22.170 --> 00:51:24.150 higher tariffs on Brazil. 00:51:24.150 --> 00:51:28.750 Which is one of the biggest beef exporters to present to the United States. 00:51:28.970 --> 00:51:32.190 Right. And so, yeah, beef prices are going up. 00:51:32.850 --> 00:51:33.030 Yeah. 00:51:33.670 --> 00:51:38.390 And, and, and, you know, these are, these are these red meat Americans who like 00:51:38.390 --> 00:51:44.350 beef is like, you know, somehow more macho than like eating chicken or pork or something. 00:51:44.350 --> 00:51:49.490 So like, you know, beef will hit home, I guess. I don't know, but. 00:51:50.580 --> 00:51:56.360 But yeah, it's a cascade of things like right now between Powell, 00:51:56.820 --> 00:52:01.320 the whole interest rate mess, between inflation, between the tariffs, 00:52:01.580 --> 00:52:07.140 between the bad job numbers, and hey, did we forget about Epstein? 00:52:08.140 --> 00:52:12.760 Well, yeah, maybe in the next segment. We're doing econ right now. 00:52:13.400 --> 00:52:17.100 You know, but by the way, let's be clear about this. 00:52:17.100 --> 00:52:25.060 Trump right now is trying to flood this, you know, everything with all of this 00:52:25.060 --> 00:52:29.780 shit in large part to distract. 00:52:29.780 --> 00:52:31.780 Try to move the story along. 00:52:32.140 --> 00:52:36.420 Yes. He's trying to move the story from the whole Epstein thing. 00:52:36.720 --> 00:52:42.840 He is determined to try to move the story and which is why this week was wild. 00:52:43.440 --> 00:52:45.440 And we've got a ballroom, Sam. 00:52:46.200 --> 00:52:51.580 Okay. If we're moving on from econ to everything else, why don't we go ahead and take a break? 00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:56.000 And then when we come back, we'll just do everything else. 00:52:56.340 --> 00:52:59.160 But, you know, before I would like to just summarize. 00:52:59.740 --> 00:53:02.500 Yeah. Okay. Summarize. Summarize the wild week. 00:53:03.080 --> 00:53:07.900 I'll summarize the wild week in how I felt about this. 00:53:07.900 --> 00:53:17.880 And I'm just like, we are being run by the biggest fucking bunch of morons ever 00:53:17.880 --> 00:53:21.880 put in charge of anything ever. 00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:26.240 Like somebody yesterday on Bloomberg came on. 00:53:26.440 --> 00:53:30.100 They asked him, well, Peter Navarro said, well, let me be clear. 00:53:30.100 --> 00:53:34.260 I've never thought that anything coming out of Peter Navarro's mouth is worth 00:53:34.260 --> 00:53:38.000 anything because he's just wrong on everything. 00:53:38.900 --> 00:53:39.540 Okay. 00:53:41.430 --> 00:53:41.930 That's it. 00:53:42.230 --> 00:53:42.770 That's it. 00:53:43.270 --> 00:53:47.230 Fuck Trump. Fuck his people. Fuck them all. I hate them. 00:53:48.050 --> 00:53:50.350 This has been a theme now for like a decade. 00:53:52.810 --> 00:53:57.330 I didn't realize Hunter Biden felt exactly like I did. Holy shit. Jesus Christ. 00:53:57.990 --> 00:54:00.650 Yeah, yeah. Okay. We talked about him last week. I know, I know. 00:54:00.710 --> 00:54:03.850 But I'm still like always like just surprised, you know, just like until I heard 00:54:03.850 --> 00:54:06.170 him. I'm like, shit. I mean, Jesus Christ. I mean, might as well just. 00:54:06.790 --> 00:54:11.730 You could have AI put my face on him and said, oh. Look at that. 00:54:12.210 --> 00:54:14.650 You should just swap you out. See if Biden will adopt you. 00:54:15.570 --> 00:54:22.130 I mean, I'd like to hang out with Joe. He's a nice guy. Probably tell somebody, you know what? 00:54:22.170 --> 00:54:23.310 And your family can have hundreds. 00:54:23.450 --> 00:54:26.230 Let me tell you something. Can you have a hanging out one day with Joe over 00:54:26.230 --> 00:54:30.390 at the house when he's got the grandkids and whatever and everybody over there 00:54:30.390 --> 00:54:33.290 cooking or whatever, hanging out with that? Probably a good time. 00:54:33.550 --> 00:54:35.990 No. I would say it would be a lovely time. 00:54:36.250 --> 00:54:39.530 There was a video clip this week that was going around of him like just dropping 00:54:39.530 --> 00:54:44.070 into some random ice cream shop to get some ice cream. Yeah. So. 00:54:44.350 --> 00:54:46.410 I mean, that would be a lovely time. 00:54:46.650 --> 00:54:54.950 I would, you know, we could do a reality show with you in Biden's family and Hunter in your family. 00:54:55.310 --> 00:54:58.350 See how the swap worked out. 00:54:58.770 --> 00:55:06.710 Well, that would be interesting. With my family, I think Hunter might be in for a rude awakening. 00:55:08.810 --> 00:55:12.090 Okay, here comes a break. It's another Apple Dream. Oh! 00:55:12.690 --> 00:55:17.610 Randomly chosen from the 72 currently available Apple Dreams. This is Apple Dream 2. 00:55:18.210 --> 00:55:21.550 Very, very old Apple Dream. Here we go. 00:55:22.670 --> 00:55:26.450 Here is a dream for Alex. I've already forgotten most of it. 00:55:27.110 --> 00:55:35.170 Mom and I and you were in Mozambique, where Grandma Ruth lived for a number of years. 00:55:35.350 --> 00:55:38.450 And I think we were just visiting, but maybe we were living there. 00:55:38.930 --> 00:55:43.350 But we needed to go home. Grandma Ruth was there, too. 00:55:44.090 --> 00:55:48.270 And we needed to catch the airplane back. 00:55:49.110 --> 00:55:53.030 And then we realized we had two different 00:55:53.030 --> 00:55:55.730 flights and we were worried about how 00:55:55.730 --> 00:55:58.910 to get mom to her flight and then we realized my 00:55:58.910 --> 00:56:05.670 flight was only a couple hours after her flight and so we thought that maybe 00:56:05.670 --> 00:56:11.550 we should just go to the airport together but then we realized we'd have to 00:56:11.550 --> 00:56:15.570 have someone to take care of you because we couldn't just leave you at the airport 00:56:15.570 --> 00:56:18.250 while we both left and went back to the United States. 00:56:19.090 --> 00:56:26.490 And then I woke up. I think there was more to it than that. But I don't really remember anymore. Bye. 00:56:27.190 --> 00:56:33.630 So it's not convenient just to leave a child at the airport. It doesn't really work. 00:56:34.130 --> 00:56:36.810 I don't see why not. I mean, you know. 00:56:36.810 --> 00:56:41.970 We just say, hey, just stay here. And, you know, like ticketing, 00:56:41.970 --> 00:56:47.010 you know, before security in that area. and says, you know, just wait here and we'll be back. 00:56:47.290 --> 00:56:49.290 We'll be back in a week. Have fun. 00:56:49.850 --> 00:56:50.010 Yeah. 00:56:50.430 --> 00:56:54.230 You know? Yeah, just usually like a food court or something. 00:56:54.670 --> 00:56:55.770 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:56:55.790 --> 00:56:57.450 They can eat, their bathroom. 00:56:57.650 --> 00:57:00.690 In some airports, they're even open 24 hours. I will tell you this. 00:57:00.790 --> 00:57:05.430 My wife went through Seattle Airport a couple of weeks ago because she went 00:57:05.430 --> 00:57:08.870 to this thing that she was going to like. 00:57:08.870 --> 00:57:09.990 In Vancouver or wherever. 00:57:10.190 --> 00:57:15.730 No, no, no. She went back. she met with some people they were going on this 00:57:15.730 --> 00:57:19.530 thing to the Washington she hates Seattle airport, 00:57:20.670 --> 00:57:24.970 all the lounges were full all the restaurants were full everything was full 00:57:24.970 --> 00:57:28.090 everything's under construction she came back she was in a really pissy mood 00:57:28.090 --> 00:57:29.890 she said I hate this fucking airport. 00:57:31.390 --> 00:57:33.790 I apologize for the people of Seattle. 00:57:35.250 --> 00:57:40.310 I'll let her know that you're transmitting your apologies. Okay, so very good. 00:57:41.050 --> 00:57:44.630 Okay, so shall we just essentially do a lightning round of all the other crap 00:57:44.630 --> 00:57:46.210 on our list from this week? 00:57:46.490 --> 00:57:46.970 Sure. 00:57:47.450 --> 00:57:52.850 Okay, one thing I will start with that just, we haven't talked about on the 00:57:52.850 --> 00:57:58.290 show in a long, long time, but just to put it out there, it is still horrible in Gaza. 00:57:58.710 --> 00:57:59.490 Oh, God. 00:57:59.950 --> 00:58:00.630 You know. 00:58:00.810 --> 00:58:01.170 It's worse! 00:58:02.290 --> 00:58:03.150 This week. 00:58:03.250 --> 00:58:03.910 It's worse! 00:58:03.910 --> 00:58:08.990 This week, we're talking a lot about starvation and the fact that Israel hasn't 00:58:08.990 --> 00:58:11.590 let very much food in for a couple months. And so now. 00:58:11.910 --> 00:58:16.170 Hey, but you know what? I'm sure that Harris would have done much worse. 00:58:16.930 --> 00:58:17.370 Yes. 00:58:17.470 --> 00:58:23.850 Look, I am sure that she would have made sure that they got nuked by now. Yeah. 00:58:23.950 --> 00:58:24.850 Yes. Yeah. 00:58:25.070 --> 00:58:28.090 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, Harris probably would have gone out there with a 00:58:28.090 --> 00:58:29.650 gun herself and started killing babies. 00:58:30.650 --> 00:58:41.190 Probably. Okay. Yeah. So, look, what has seemingly changed this week is a dam 00:58:41.190 --> 00:58:47.370 seems to be breaking in terms of both international and U.S. 00:58:47.530 --> 00:58:51.170 Public opinions on this thing. And I shouldn't say a dam breaking. 00:58:51.390 --> 00:58:55.290 I mean, it's been moving in this direction for a while. It just seems to be accelerating. 00:58:55.290 --> 00:58:58.050 Accelerating we've got a few 00:58:58.050 --> 00:59:01.390 countries now saying they're gonna recognize the 00:59:01.390 --> 00:59:07.190 palestinian authority as a state uh it either right away or in a few months 00:59:07.190 --> 00:59:13.870 depending on what israel does things like that like i you know canada the uk 00:59:13.870 --> 00:59:19.650 i think a couple others and look this is basically a symbolic thing. 00:59:19.850 --> 00:59:22.490 It's not going to make too much of an on the ground difference. 00:59:22.750 --> 00:59:32.930 But it's, it's a step that most of sort of the industrialized Western countries have not done. 00:59:33.090 --> 00:59:40.230 Like a lot of other countries have like, you know, most of sort of the non-aligned third world, 00:59:40.450 --> 00:59:43.150 third world is an outdated concept at this 00:59:43.150 --> 00:59:48.390 point but like most of those non-eu 00:59:48.390 --> 00:59:51.190 not non-us most of those countries have already 00:59:51.190 --> 00:59:54.270 taken this step years ago you know to recognize the 00:59:54.270 --> 00:59:57.170 palestinian state but sort of 00:59:57.170 --> 01:00:02.690 the core western group of countries has not and part of the reason is that they 01:00:02.690 --> 01:00:08.770 have always stated that should be part of a negotiated peace settlement that 01:00:08.770 --> 01:00:13.590 israel takes part in and basically these countries are saying it's absolutely 01:00:13.590 --> 01:00:17.090 clear at this point that Israel has no intention of ever going there, 01:00:17.860 --> 01:00:22.420 And so we're going to go ahead and take this step to try to give a little bit 01:00:22.420 --> 01:00:30.540 more weight to the Palestinian side and also to, you know, basically register our disapproval. 01:00:31.640 --> 01:00:37.860 And we also see like polls of Americans in terms of who do you sympathize more 01:00:37.860 --> 01:00:39.740 with, the Americans or the Israelis, 01:00:40.100 --> 01:00:47.440 are now heavily on the Palestinians or the Israelis, are now very... 01:00:47.860 --> 01:00:52.600 Much tilted towards the Palestinian side being the side that's being sympathized with. 01:00:53.500 --> 01:00:58.760 And look, I think this is, I mean, honestly, I've been there for a long time, 01:00:59.100 --> 01:01:00.780 even before October 7th. 01:01:01.200 --> 01:01:04.780 But when you have something like October 7th specifically, it's like clearly, 01:01:05.440 --> 01:01:08.700 Hamas was in the wrong on what happened in October 7th. 01:01:08.900 --> 01:01:15.660 They made an unprovoked attack on civilians that wasn't even going to really 01:01:15.660 --> 01:01:21.060 make any progress towards their theoretical political goals, 01:01:21.100 --> 01:01:24.800 at least it seems this way. It seems like it's played out this way. 01:01:25.520 --> 01:01:35.720 But then, Israel's response has been so far disproportionate to what happened. 01:01:36.660 --> 01:01:46.680 I mean, I forget the latest totals, but the number of people killed is obscenely high. Yep. 01:01:47.040 --> 01:01:54.500 And like, so like orders of magnitude higher than what Hamas killed on October 7th. 01:01:54.680 --> 01:01:58.380 And a significant portion of those killed have been children. 01:01:58.900 --> 01:02:05.140 It's like, and, and you are, you see these pictures of them basically leveling 01:02:05.140 --> 01:02:09.840 huge parts of the Gaza Strip completely, like no buildings left standing. 01:02:10.660 --> 01:02:14.640 And you know so yeah the sympathy has has 01:02:14.640 --> 01:02:18.500 shifted now has that translated into 01:02:18.500 --> 01:02:21.700 changes of what's happening on the ground no it has 01:02:21.700 --> 01:02:28.340 not yet even in terms of like the u.s congress somebody pointed out that while 01:02:28.340 --> 01:02:33.600 while the like for instance let's talk about democrats for the moment because 01:02:33.600 --> 01:02:37.780 republicans are a whole different story but on the democratic side it's now 01:02:37.780 --> 01:02:39.720 like if you survey Democrats. 01:02:40.780 --> 01:02:46.240 It's like 70% or something are like Israel's gone too far we have to be taking 01:02:46.240 --> 01:02:50.560 harsh actions against Israel to rein them in we should be doing sanctions, 01:02:50.660 --> 01:02:54.080 we shouldn't be selling weapons to them anymore, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, 01:02:55.290 --> 01:03:01.970 In terms of Democratic people in Congress, it's like only 20% or something have that view. 01:03:02.270 --> 01:03:08.950 And so we still have, you know, we don't have, you know, majorities even within 01:03:08.950 --> 01:03:12.010 Democrats, let alone overall, to like change policy. 01:03:12.190 --> 01:03:16.790 And Donald Trump is certainly not going to change policy. You joked about Kamala 01:03:16.790 --> 01:03:22.830 Harris, but I suspect at this point she would have shifted some. 01:03:22.830 --> 01:03:30.370 I mean, even, you know, the whole thing against Biden was he was he was clearly 01:03:30.370 --> 01:03:34.310 displeased with what Netanyahu was doing, but he was trying to keep it private. 01:03:34.630 --> 01:03:40.070 He was trying to influence a lot of pressure on them and had been able to like. 01:03:40.190 --> 01:03:47.070 You know, the one that's happened so far. Biden negotiated. Exactly. Hostages. Exactly. 01:03:47.250 --> 01:03:51.430 And he had been able to pressure him to stop some of the most vicious stuff 01:03:51.430 --> 01:03:54.050 and just, you know, to stop a lot of these things to try to, 01:03:54.190 --> 01:03:58.290 like, make this more targeted, what they were trying to do. 01:03:58.450 --> 01:04:01.090 He really did put a lot of pressure. But let's be clear about this. 01:04:01.170 --> 01:04:05.730 Once Biden is gone, Netanyahu has basically done whatever the fuck he's wanted to do. 01:04:05.730 --> 01:04:11.130 And Trump has done absolutely nothing to stop him from being completely, 01:04:11.490 --> 01:04:18.170 completely, you know, unconcerned for the lives of anybody living there at all. 01:04:18.410 --> 01:04:25.390 Now, to be clear, in just in the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump has, 01:04:25.530 --> 01:04:30.690 for instance, said, oh, yeah, there are obviously people starving there and that's bad. 01:04:31.410 --> 01:04:36.110 Wait, wait, wait. I just want to say this, which Netanyahu to this day is denying. 01:04:36.130 --> 01:04:38.990 He's saying that it's a lie and people aren't starving. 01:04:39.810 --> 01:04:44.770 So Trump has gone against him in that sense, but he's not doing anything. 01:04:45.980 --> 01:04:47.720 But he has sort of... 01:04:47.720 --> 01:04:48.480 But you know what? 01:04:49.620 --> 01:04:50.940 He's expressed some displugged. 01:04:51.340 --> 01:04:55.500 Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know what? That had to meet the sound of the 01:04:55.500 --> 01:05:01.080 standard Trump thing that happens, that he listens to the last person to talk to him. 01:05:01.440 --> 01:05:01.840 Right. 01:05:02.260 --> 01:05:05.920 Where he must have talked to somebody and whatever, and they said that, 01:05:05.960 --> 01:05:08.620 and all of a sudden he said that, then three days later, like, forget it. 01:05:09.240 --> 01:05:14.740 Well and the key is as far as we have seen he's not actually putting pressure 01:05:14.740 --> 01:05:20.600 on netanyahu to change anything other than verbally saying like yeah this kind of sucks and. 01:05:20.600 --> 01:05:22.000 That he sent food. 01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:25.940 Yes and oh because nobody had thanked him for the food nobody. 01:05:25.940 --> 01:05:30.580 Thanked him for the food because i mean he's just never thanked enough for everything he does for us. 01:05:30.580 --> 01:05:35.880 Okay anyway gaza is horrible. It continues to be horrible. Next up, you pick one. 01:05:36.540 --> 01:05:40.800 Well, I was gonna, well, I forgot one thing. 01:05:41.000 --> 01:05:45.300 Well, one thing to cover on the, on the tariff side that I forgot to mention. 01:05:45.580 --> 01:05:46.760 Which is very important. 01:05:47.220 --> 01:05:53.200 You know, Trump is very good at making foreign politicians be popular. That hate him. 01:05:53.300 --> 01:05:53.640 Okay. 01:05:54.040 --> 01:05:59.500 And so in Brazil, you know, this whole thing, the row with Brazil and like with 01:05:59.500 --> 01:06:04.700 Bolsonaro and him trying to impose serious, you know, higher tariffs on Brazil 01:06:04.700 --> 01:06:06.800 because they're prosecuting him. 01:06:08.160 --> 01:06:12.140 The president of Brazil, Lula, whose popularity wasn't that great. 01:06:12.740 --> 01:06:16.040 He actually is now over 50% popularity, thanks to Trump. 01:06:16.720 --> 01:06:17.200 Nice. 01:06:17.500 --> 01:06:24.740 I mean, so Lula is thanking Trump because he stood up to him and basically said, fuck you. 01:06:25.560 --> 01:06:30.700 You know, you want to do these tariffs? Let's go. Come on. And his popularity is soared. 01:06:32.700 --> 01:06:38.200 So there you go. All right. So next subject on this. 01:06:38.520 --> 01:06:40.800 And by the way, he also blinked on some of the Brazil tariffs. 01:06:41.060 --> 01:06:41.700 Of course. 01:06:42.200 --> 01:06:46.360 Yeah. You know, we buy airplanes from Brazil and shit like that. 01:06:46.520 --> 01:06:49.340 And all of a sudden, oh shit. Yeah. Well, anyway. 01:06:50.700 --> 01:06:55.040 Just on that, since you mentioned the exemptions on certain things, 01:06:55.220 --> 01:06:59.060 another report came out this week that i believe you forwarded around on the 01:06:59.060 --> 01:07:05.140 curmudgeon's corner slack about how you know there are all kinds of exemptions 01:07:05.140 --> 01:07:10.900 for one thing or another or another and yeah what what what is there rhyme or 01:07:10.900 --> 01:07:14.840 reason behind the exemptions no oh what's what's going on i'm. 01:07:14.840 --> 01:07:20.820 Sure that what i said is like listen take take take a you know cross a list 01:07:20.820 --> 01:07:27.180 of donors to trump versus those exemptions And I am sure that that will answer your question. 01:07:27.980 --> 01:07:31.100 Yes. And this is something that we said from the very beginning, 01:07:31.240 --> 01:07:34.280 by the way. It's like, don't even watch the tariffs. Watch the exemptions. 01:07:36.120 --> 01:07:37.440 Anyway, go ahead. Okay. 01:07:37.720 --> 01:07:44.900 More Trump Epstein, Sam. So what, you know, so this week, Trump trying to tamp 01:07:44.900 --> 01:07:52.060 down the issues with Epstein went and said, what was it that he said? 01:07:52.220 --> 01:07:55.120 He said that Epstein stole Virginia. 01:07:56.740 --> 01:07:57.600 And I'm sorry. 01:07:57.940 --> 01:07:59.160 How do you say her last name? 01:07:59.320 --> 01:08:03.900 And I feel bad because this year, you know, they mentioned that she committed 01:08:03.900 --> 01:08:08.740 suicide this year. And I know that a lot of this stems from the abuse, 01:08:08.740 --> 01:08:13.420 the abuse that she was subjected to by these monsters. 01:08:14.780 --> 01:08:19.440 And by the way, not just the original abuse, ongoing abuse. 01:08:19.480 --> 01:08:21.200 Ongoing, ongoing, yes. 01:08:21.200 --> 01:08:24.460 Um like you know the original physical 01:08:24.460 --> 01:08:27.380 abuse happened you know decades ago but on 01:08:27.380 --> 01:08:30.380 an ongoing basis anybody who does this kind of 01:08:30.380 --> 01:08:34.220 thing and goes up and 01:08:34.220 --> 01:08:37.240 again sort of quote goes public goes up 01:08:37.240 --> 01:08:40.060 against powerful people whatever they're getting 01:08:40.060 --> 01:08:42.900 death threats all the time they're getting you know 01:08:42.900 --> 01:08:45.560 their motivations questioned they're getting this that this 01:08:45.560 --> 01:08:48.580 is why like it you know lots of people never 01:08:48.580 --> 01:08:52.600 come forward because when they do it's 01:08:52.600 --> 01:08:55.680 it's it's an incredible act of 01:08:55.680 --> 01:09:01.280 bravery to actually come forward in one of these cases especially when the perpetrator 01:09:01.280 --> 01:09:06.300 is famous but honestly even when they're not because all kinds of people will 01:09:06.300 --> 01:09:10.440 just impugn your own motives and and try to say you're you're just making it 01:09:10.440 --> 01:09:14.700 up you're out to get them money like trying to ruin this money something. 01:09:14.700 --> 01:09:16.620 Whatever blah blah blah yeah. 01:09:16.620 --> 01:09:17.960 So uh but. 01:09:17.960 --> 01:09:27.860 But then this fucking trump monster goes and says that epstein stole her from her from him. 01:09:27.860 --> 01:09:28.800 Yes, 01:09:30.070 --> 01:09:34.670 I mean, to be honest, like if you listen to the video clip on Air Force One, 01:09:35.810 --> 01:09:41.130 you know, he says they were asking him, what was the origin of your beef with 01:09:41.130 --> 01:09:43.630 Epstein that caused you to sort of break up his friends? 01:09:44.190 --> 01:09:49.010 Now, there have been various stories in the past about what was responsible for this. 01:09:49.230 --> 01:09:53.290 In some cases, Trump was saying it was just because he was a creep. 01:09:54.030 --> 01:09:58.750 In other cases, and the one that seems to be the most collaborated with additional 01:09:58.750 --> 01:10:00.310 evidence from other people— Corroborate. 01:10:00.630 --> 01:10:01.070 Corroborate. 01:10:01.670 --> 01:10:07.110 Well, it was actually that it was a real estate beef. There was a property that 01:10:07.110 --> 01:10:10.810 Epstein was trying to buy, and Trump found out about it. 01:10:10.910 --> 01:10:12.650 And then Trump went and bought it. 01:10:12.750 --> 01:10:14.130 Trump went and bought it at a 01:10:14.130 --> 01:10:18.150 higher price, but Epstein was mad that Trump bought it out from under him. 01:10:18.250 --> 01:10:22.650 But Trump was mad that he had to pay more because Epstein was bidding on it in the first place. 01:10:22.650 --> 01:10:27.770 Blah blah blah that seems to be like the stuff that is the most evidence for 01:10:27.770 --> 01:10:32.530 the actual reason of their breakup but this time donald trump said it was because 01:10:32.530 --> 01:10:34.790 he was poaching people from mar-a-lago, 01:10:35.950 --> 01:10:38.810 and you know he was he was stealing my 01:10:38.810 --> 01:10:41.570 employees but no he didn't volunteer the virginia thing at 01:10:41.570 --> 01:10:44.310 first someone on the plane one of 01:10:44.310 --> 01:10:47.050 the reporters asked him was one of 01:10:47.050 --> 01:10:50.110 these people virginia and he's like i'm not 01:10:50.110 --> 01:10:52.870 sure i think yeah probably yeah i think so 01:10:52.870 --> 01:10:55.670 yes it was that that's sort of the way he said 01:10:55.670 --> 01:11:02.110 it you know so it wasn't sort of him coming out and definitely saying like i 01:11:02.110 --> 01:11:10.750 broke up with him because he stole virginia gillif gillif whatever fuck anyway 01:11:10.750 --> 01:11:15.530 he wasn't saying it was specifically because he stole that woman. 01:11:15.890 --> 01:11:19.150 He was talking about a pattern of him stealing. 01:11:19.690 --> 01:11:24.950 Jiffrey. Jiffrey. Jiffrey. And then when asked if she was one of them, 01:11:25.070 --> 01:11:27.870 he said, yes, I sort of think so, probably. 01:11:28.750 --> 01:11:33.390 The timing does not line up. If you look at this, like they continued to be 01:11:33.390 --> 01:11:35.730 friends for years after this supposed incident. 01:11:36.700 --> 01:11:39.860 So it doesn't really make sense. 01:11:40.080 --> 01:11:45.620 But the problem is that I think that everything, you know, everything that he says is a lie. 01:11:45.740 --> 01:11:50.520 So I'm sure that that and remember that that Trump has had this thing where 01:11:50.520 --> 01:11:52.720 he has beefs with people's pissed off about something. 01:11:52.880 --> 01:11:55.860 Then he goes back and his friends with him and then he goes back to being pissed. 01:11:56.040 --> 01:11:59.240 So God only knows if he was pissed about that. But then he came back or whatever. 01:11:59.340 --> 01:12:01.460 Then he was pissed. You know, but but but but. 01:12:01.460 --> 01:12:08.980 And the other thing about it that got people, like Virginia Gilliff, say it again? 01:12:09.360 --> 01:12:10.340 Jeffrey. Jeffrey. 01:12:10.800 --> 01:12:16.360 Virginia Jeffrey. Her family came out and said the thing that disturbed them 01:12:16.360 --> 01:12:23.320 most about this whole thing is how he was basically describing her as if she was property. Right. 01:12:23.480 --> 01:12:26.760 That was stolen. Yes. That's the way that he described it. Yes. 01:12:26.900 --> 01:12:28.820 And so, like, if you were. 01:12:28.820 --> 01:12:31.540 Which goes back to the whole sex trafficking. 01:12:31.860 --> 01:12:40.800 Yes. And just to be clear, Virginia herself had repeatedly said that she was 01:12:40.800 --> 01:12:42.880 not abused by Donald Trump herself. 01:12:43.380 --> 01:12:46.260 You know, she had been asked that question multiple times. 01:12:47.100 --> 01:12:51.960 She had named other people, most notably not just Epstein himself, 01:12:52.140 --> 01:12:54.360 but Prince Andrew from the UK. 01:12:54.360 --> 01:12:59.140 So she had named other names, but she was asked about and said specifically, 01:12:59.140 --> 01:13:02.400 I never had those kinds of interactions with Donald Trump himself. 01:13:02.760 --> 01:13:08.880 But she was recruited from Mar-a-Lago. She was working at the spa in Mar-a-Lago 01:13:08.880 --> 01:13:16.100 at first, and that's where Epstein and Maxwell recruited her, 01:13:16.260 --> 01:13:18.820 where Maxwell met her. And, 01:13:20.060 --> 01:13:24.160 Which brings up the question. Now, I've heard some conflicting reports on exactly 01:13:24.160 --> 01:13:26.700 what she was doing at the spa. 01:13:26.840 --> 01:13:29.180 Like, I mean, she might have just been a front desk attendant or whatever. 01:13:29.420 --> 01:13:33.540 But the bottom line is, why are you hiring teenagers for that anyway? 01:13:35.040 --> 01:13:38.780 Well, why is he buying beauty pageants with, like, teenagers? 01:13:39.140 --> 01:13:42.880 Why is he hanging out and, like, going and, like, oogling them one day or, 01:13:42.980 --> 01:13:44.300 like, changing their clothes? 01:13:44.560 --> 01:13:48.080 You know, as everybody has mentioned publicly. why is 01:13:48.080 --> 01:13:51.000 he going and having parties where all of a sudden he invited 01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:55.780 people like you know luther campbell from two live crew that he showed up where 01:13:55.780 --> 01:14:01.640 he was so he was like he saw these girls he saw they were half naked he saw 01:14:01.640 --> 01:14:05.660 that they were like so young and he realized what the fuck is this thing and 01:14:05.660 --> 01:14:08.800 decided to turn around and leave right. 01:14:08.800 --> 01:14:15.820 Yeah it's not like there isn't a chain of circumstantial evidence around Donald 01:14:15.820 --> 01:14:17.500 Trump liking his girls young too. 01:14:17.980 --> 01:14:18.180 Yes. 01:14:19.640 --> 01:14:25.740 And apparently the deal he made with Ivanka at some point when she was growing 01:14:25.740 --> 01:14:31.060 up was that he would, from that point forward, never date anyone younger than she was. 01:14:31.380 --> 01:14:35.440 And he talked about on Howard Stern or something, how this was a big sacrifice 01:14:35.440 --> 01:14:40.940 because as Ivanka aged, you know, he was shutting himself out from a huge part 01:14:40.940 --> 01:14:42.080 of his potential market. 01:14:42.990 --> 01:14:43.390 So, 01:14:45.570 --> 01:14:47.870 okay. So, yes. 01:14:48.170 --> 01:14:53.010 Oh, and let's not forget, what happened this week to Ghislaine Maxwell? 01:14:53.330 --> 01:15:00.510 I was going to go there next. So she got transferred to- To Club Fed! To Club Fed. 01:15:00.970 --> 01:15:06.310 And apparently they had to put in special override exemption, 01:15:06.310 --> 01:15:10.530 whatever, because she wasn't actually eligible for the nicer, 01:15:10.530 --> 01:15:13.410 lower security prison. because she's a sex offender. 01:15:13.630 --> 01:15:14.070 Right. 01:15:14.590 --> 01:15:19.190 You know, those facilities are basically intended for like white collar criminals, et cetera. 01:15:19.390 --> 01:15:23.470 And being a sex offender is not considered part of that, which by the way, 01:15:23.650 --> 01:15:27.410 I just want to also put out there, a lot of people are making sure they point 01:15:27.410 --> 01:15:28.930 this out, but I want to be one of them. 01:15:29.930 --> 01:15:36.770 There, a lot of the coverage of Maxwell talks about her sort of facilitating 01:15:36.770 --> 01:15:44.090 Epstein and like recruiting girls for Epstein and delivering them to him and 01:15:44.090 --> 01:15:46.370 to the other men in that circle. 01:15:46.530 --> 01:15:50.350 And that is absolutely true. That happened. She was convicted of that. 01:15:50.510 --> 01:15:56.730 But it's also important to note, she also directly molested these girls. 01:15:57.170 --> 01:15:58.230 Yes. Yes. 01:15:58.310 --> 01:16:01.510 Like it is part of the evidence on record in the trial. 01:16:01.890 --> 01:16:06.550 Yes. There are plenty of witnesses who have testified to this that very often 01:16:06.550 --> 01:16:11.510 she would actually be the first one to molest these girls. 01:16:11.710 --> 01:16:11.910 Yes. 01:16:12.090 --> 01:16:15.430 And sort of warm them up for Epstein or whatever. 01:16:16.370 --> 01:16:22.910 And, you know, so her, her whole modus operandi was that she would go searching 01:16:22.910 --> 01:16:26.070 in, you know, lower income areas, 01:16:26.910 --> 01:16:32.830 people with, you know, single parents, troubled teens who were like in trouble 01:16:32.830 --> 01:16:34.110 for other things already. 01:16:34.310 --> 01:16:39.970 She would befriend them. She would talk to them about how she thought they could 01:16:39.970 --> 01:16:45.010 be models and she was going to hook them up with like modeling agencies and 01:16:45.010 --> 01:16:47.130 maybe Hollywood and blah, blah, blah. 01:16:47.430 --> 01:16:51.630 And you fill their heads with like how she's going to make them like an amazing 01:16:51.630 --> 01:16:58.070 success and help them out in their careers and help them out financially and all this kind of stuff. 01:16:58.250 --> 01:17:02.730 And then she would molest them herself and then she would deliver them to Epstein 01:17:02.730 --> 01:17:06.710 and then she would deliver them to other men that were in that same circle. 01:17:07.410 --> 01:17:07.750 Yeah. 01:17:08.350 --> 01:17:10.690 You know, so she is, Yo, 01:17:12.060 --> 01:17:19.240 All of this, there appears, we seem to be sort of working our way up to some 01:17:19.240 --> 01:17:20.980 sort of Donald Trump pardon or 01:17:20.980 --> 01:17:28.880 commutation of Maxwell in exchange for presumably her, at the very least, 01:17:29.360 --> 01:17:31.480 saying Donald Trump had nothing to do with this. 01:17:31.600 --> 01:17:37.380 And perhaps also, while she's at it, pointing the finger at some Democrats, you know. 01:17:37.380 --> 01:17:43.260 And we had a situation where I can't remember if this happened by the time we talked last week or not, 01:17:43.420 --> 01:17:49.620 but high up officials from the DOJ interviewed her alone, which, 01:17:49.720 --> 01:17:53.660 by the way, is completely nonstandard in any sort of way as well. 01:17:53.660 --> 01:17:57.080 They gave her limited immunity to do so normally if 01:17:57.080 --> 01:18:00.080 you were going to interview somebody like this 01:18:00.080 --> 01:18:03.220 you would make sure the people interviewing her were 01:18:03.220 --> 01:18:09.320 people that were intimately familiar with all the details of her case already 01:18:09.320 --> 01:18:13.800 so that they could do things like catch her in any lies know the right places 01:18:13.800 --> 01:18:18.660 to ask questions all this kind of stuff oh by the way they fired the person 01:18:18.660 --> 01:18:20.500 who would have met that criteria. 01:18:21.500 --> 01:18:26.760 Jim Comey's daughter, who happened to be the one prosecuting both Epstein and 01:18:26.760 --> 01:18:29.580 Maxwell, they fired her a couple weeks ago. 01:18:30.060 --> 01:18:33.080 She would have been perfect for that if you were actually going to do this in 01:18:33.080 --> 01:18:35.480 a good faith sort of way, which they are clearly not. 01:18:36.060 --> 01:18:41.840 Instead, they bring up one of the Donald Trump cronies, I forget which one, to do the interview. 01:18:41.840 --> 01:18:47.400 The interview, there's no record right now in terms of where their notes on 01:18:47.400 --> 01:18:51.780 the interview was there a recording was there anything it was it just him in 01:18:51.780 --> 01:18:54.960 a room with her, you know, we don't know those details. 01:18:55.460 --> 01:19:00.600 Now, maybe there, maybe there are all, you know, all that we just don't know. And. 01:19:01.670 --> 01:19:05.870 You know, and this is all put in the thing of, we're going to get to the bottom of it. 01:19:06.670 --> 01:19:10.310 But come on, you know, and clearly the. 01:19:10.410 --> 01:19:15.950 We're going to get to the bottom of it. And somebody shared with me a meme that 01:19:15.950 --> 01:19:18.150 showed, you know, he's going to get to the bottom of it. 01:19:18.270 --> 01:19:23.670 And they showed OJ on a picture on the side said, yeah, I'm going to find the killers. 01:19:24.330 --> 01:19:27.610 Yep. look there 01:19:27.610 --> 01:19:31.050 there is no public evidence of direct wrongdoing by 01:19:31.050 --> 01:19:37.570 donald trump at this point but he continues to act guilty you know and you know 01:19:37.570 --> 01:19:42.650 this whole movement moving her to the low security federal facility blah blah 01:19:42.650 --> 01:19:50.090 blah i mean it it just looks like a proof of good faith essentially look Maxwell. 01:19:50.510 --> 01:19:55.170 You know, we're going to give you this right now just to show you if you can 01:19:55.170 --> 01:19:58.130 give us more, maybe we'll give you more too. 01:19:58.410 --> 01:20:03.450 You know, and who knows? This is just speculation. We don't know what's happening, 01:20:03.470 --> 01:20:09.870 but it all looks bad and it's all keeping things in the news. 01:20:10.030 --> 01:20:15.610 So like, if the goal is to make this disappear, Donald Trump is doing it exactly 01:20:15.610 --> 01:20:19.590 the wrong way. There's also been, by the way, a congressional subpoena for more 01:20:19.590 --> 01:20:22.730 of the materials that apparently have to be delivered by the 15th. 01:20:22.750 --> 01:20:24.070 We'll see if that actually happens. 01:20:25.010 --> 01:20:32.010 But yeah, we're 100% Streisand affecting this. 01:20:32.550 --> 01:20:39.610 Where Donald Trump himself is keeping this in the news more than anybody else. Yeah. 01:20:40.110 --> 01:20:44.990 Like if he had just shut the fuck up and been quiet, like, I'm not saying it 01:20:44.990 --> 01:20:48.030 would have blown over completely because a lot of MAGA folks were upset. 01:20:48.610 --> 01:20:53.410 A lot of MAGA folks are still upset. Let's be clear about this. 01:20:53.670 --> 01:20:59.130 All of this is distracting from we don't listen to this whole thing. 01:20:59.370 --> 01:21:02.390 What was the whole purpose of how this all started? How did this all start? 01:21:03.380 --> 01:21:07.300 What was the main thing? There were, because this administration was going to? 01:21:08.040 --> 01:21:09.300 Release all the files. 01:21:09.500 --> 01:21:12.320 That's right. Where the fuck are the files, Sam? 01:21:12.800 --> 01:21:16.320 No, no, but my point is just that Donald Trump has made this worse. 01:21:16.780 --> 01:21:21.020 Right. You know, if he had been quiet, it wouldn't have gone away completely. 01:21:21.080 --> 01:21:27.120 But by the fact that he himself keeps talking about it and keeps saying more things. 01:21:27.120 --> 01:21:28.860 On and on and on. 01:21:29.280 --> 01:21:34.760 You know, it's keeping it alive. It's giving more fuel to the fire. 01:21:34.940 --> 01:21:40.220 It's making him look more and more guilty, even to some of his own supporters. 01:21:40.540 --> 01:21:47.540 I mean, you know, we don't see like him, you know, we have not yet reached the 01:21:47.540 --> 01:21:52.760 magical moment where all of MAGA suddenly decides Donald Trump is a fraud. 01:21:52.780 --> 01:21:55.020 But we're working on the edges. 01:21:55.540 --> 01:21:56.760 We're working on the edges. 01:21:56.760 --> 01:22:05.700 You know, so the other thing I will mention on this is that Bruce on our Commudgeons 01:22:05.700 --> 01:22:10.940 Corner Slack left us a comment saying, you guys are missing the whole point of this Epstein thing. 01:22:10.940 --> 01:22:18.760 The real point is people think Epstein was hired by a foreign intelligence service 01:22:18.760 --> 01:22:24.480 to set all these people up, or the CIA, but most people apparently think it's Mossad, 01:22:24.760 --> 01:22:30.020 to set all these people up, gather blackmail evidence, and then manipulate all 01:22:30.020 --> 01:22:31.360 of these important Americans. 01:22:32.230 --> 01:22:38.910 And look, what I said, and my first reaction is that there hasn't been a single 01:22:38.910 --> 01:22:41.410 shred of credible evidence to point towards that. 01:22:41.690 --> 01:22:48.950 I mean, look, the first people that really did a thorough job that exposed Epstein 01:22:48.950 --> 01:22:52.730 and basically led him to being arrested, okay, 01:22:53.250 --> 01:22:58.330 back, you know, back in the late 2010s, okay, was the Miami Herald. 01:22:58.330 --> 01:23:03.630 And they had done a very authoritative, very thorough investigation into Epstein, 01:23:03.910 --> 01:23:07.290 interviewed so many of the victims, 60, 70 of them. 01:23:07.530 --> 01:23:11.330 I mean, their investigation, it's one of those things that you rarely still 01:23:11.330 --> 01:23:13.950 see being done by a local newspaper. 01:23:14.150 --> 01:23:17.470 OK, and it was extremely authoritative. 01:23:17.790 --> 01:23:21.990 It was extremely detailed. They gathered the evidence. And during that entire 01:23:21.990 --> 01:23:27.990 time that they went through and gathered that information, not one single iota 01:23:27.990 --> 01:23:32.010 shred of evidence came forward that it had anything to do with that. 01:23:32.010 --> 01:23:38.570 The main thing for Epstein was how this all started was him ingratiating with 01:23:38.570 --> 01:23:40.710 himself with people with money 01:23:40.710 --> 01:23:46.470 by providing the girls because a lot of these people liked the girls. 01:23:47.010 --> 01:23:51.190 And this would give him access to more money because he was one that didn't 01:23:51.190 --> 01:23:52.450 start with a lot of money. 01:23:52.610 --> 01:23:58.070 He didn't have that kind of money. But the first guy that he targeted that he 01:23:58.070 --> 01:24:03.510 was very close relationship with, and there's been a lot of questions about, is Leslie Wexner. 01:24:03.690 --> 01:24:06.970 Leslie Wexner is the guy that was the owner of the limited. 01:24:07.370 --> 01:24:10.510 You know, he was he was the driving force of town at Victoria's Secret and all 01:24:10.510 --> 01:24:11.430 of these other companies. 01:24:11.430 --> 01:24:14.550 This is where he had ingratiated himself 01:24:14.550 --> 01:24:17.690 with and through managing some of his money and doing investments 01:24:17.690 --> 01:24:22.070 getting money with them this is where where his main source of money first came 01:24:22.070 --> 01:24:26.690 and then he parlayed that into other money and other connections and this entire 01:24:26.690 --> 01:24:32.370 thing with the girls was a he liked it b it was his way of like sharing with 01:24:32.370 --> 01:24:35.470 his friends and getting money out of them. 01:24:36.210 --> 01:24:40.690 So there are a couple things here, just to circle back to the foreign intelligence for a second. 01:24:41.350 --> 01:24:46.410 First of all, like, this is an Occam's razor thing. There's a plenty good explanation 01:24:46.410 --> 01:24:49.310 without involving, like, the Mossad. 01:24:49.550 --> 01:24:53.390 Yeah. You know, you don't need it to explain everything that happened here. 01:24:53.770 --> 01:24:58.290 Second, people have pointed out, in a lot of the legal cases so far, 01:24:58.470 --> 01:25:05.170 if there had been an intelligence connection, you would have expected U.S. 01:25:05.770 --> 01:25:10.870 Intelligence to actually intervene in some of those cases to exclude certain 01:25:10.870 --> 01:25:13.130 evidence or to guide it in some way. 01:25:13.290 --> 01:25:15.710 And there's no evidence of that having happened. 01:25:16.690 --> 01:25:23.850 So yeah, I think you've got, you don't need any of that for this to happen. 01:25:24.070 --> 01:25:26.010 This is fairly straightforward. 01:25:27.150 --> 01:25:33.150 There's also fairly limited evidence at this point that there was a specific 01:25:33.150 --> 01:25:37.050 blackmail scheme in place, as opposed to, like you said, Yvonne, 01:25:37.170 --> 01:25:38.910 just him sharing with his friends. 01:25:39.730 --> 01:25:45.050 Now, obviously, given who some of his friends were, there was opportunity for blackmail. 01:25:45.250 --> 01:25:50.870 But it seems like that evidence isn't there. 01:25:51.310 --> 01:25:56.570 Maybe that some of what is in the files that we'll find out if they're all released, 01:25:56.710 --> 01:25:57.570 blah, blah, blah. We don't know. 01:25:59.030 --> 01:26:03.410 The other thing, though, is the financial element. There are several senators, 01:26:03.590 --> 01:26:08.630 I think Senator Schiff was one of them, I could be wrong, who was pushing and 01:26:08.630 --> 01:26:12.810 saying, look, we really do need to do a more thorough investigation of the financial side of this. 01:26:13.570 --> 01:26:21.810 Because there is a lot of question on exactly where, how, when he got his money, 01:26:22.170 --> 01:26:25.710 and was it all above board, et cetera. 01:26:26.090 --> 01:26:31.070 And it's just a, that would be a good place to investigate further. 01:26:31.610 --> 01:26:36.850 And apparently that just has not, like, what has happened so far in the criminal 01:26:36.850 --> 01:26:43.070 trials didn't need that to go after the charges they were specifically going after. 01:26:43.070 --> 01:26:47.430 Well, plus, let's be clear, though, you know, the only person who went to trial was Ghislaine. 01:26:47.630 --> 01:26:50.930 I mean, Epstein didn't go to trial. He committed suicide before he got to fucking 01:26:50.930 --> 01:26:52.770 trial. Well, at least we think he committed suicide. 01:26:52.950 --> 01:26:57.130 I mean, because even I'm like a little bit. I mean, I always believe that 100 percent. 01:26:57.330 --> 01:27:00.390 But right now, still, we still don't have clarity on this whole thing about 01:27:00.390 --> 01:27:02.130 the missing minutes in the video anyway. 01:27:02.130 --> 01:27:08.270 Right. Okay. Well, we are now at the time that you said you needed to stop, Yvonne. 01:27:08.650 --> 01:27:14.290 So let's wrap things up. The only other thing that I will save for another week 01:27:14.290 --> 01:27:19.210 is Kamala Harris has reemerged on her book tour. 01:27:19.410 --> 01:27:22.130 And so there's commentary on that and what her intentions are. 01:27:22.290 --> 01:27:24.250 She's not going to run for a governor in California. 01:27:24.930 --> 01:27:29.170 Maybe she'll run for president, but she says not yet. She's just doing other 01:27:29.170 --> 01:27:31.750 stuff right now. And of course, she's hawking the book. 01:27:32.130 --> 01:27:34.210 And people have reacted to that in various ways. 01:27:35.890 --> 01:27:37.130 Another day. Another day. 01:27:39.050 --> 01:27:42.410 I'm going to say this. Look, this was like Kabbalah. I'm not fucking reading 01:27:42.410 --> 01:27:45.170 a book about that damn campaign. I really don't fucking care. 01:27:45.330 --> 01:27:46.830 I don't want to rehash it right now. 01:27:49.330 --> 01:27:55.850 Yeah. Anyway, we will have plenty of time to talk about election 2028 as things develop. 01:27:56.350 --> 01:28:01.790 We got election 2026 first. So anyway. Okay. 01:28:02.610 --> 01:28:05.570 Curmudgeons-corner.com. You can go there. You can find our archives. 01:28:05.570 --> 01:28:10.250 You can find transcripts. You can, you know, listen to old shows if you want. 01:28:10.430 --> 01:28:14.050 You can find all the ways to contact. That would be our archives. 01:28:14.290 --> 01:28:18.010 I'm being redundant there. I know. I'm sorry. You can find all the ways to contact 01:28:18.010 --> 01:28:20.730 us, except TikTok. I still have not linked TikTok. 01:28:21.010 --> 01:28:26.510 I'm still way behind on posting clips to TikTok. I'm still on the week where my car died. 01:28:27.290 --> 01:28:32.730 Like, I posted one video from that week. I usually post three videos per show. 01:28:32.990 --> 01:28:36.610 I've got two more yet to post. I've got one chosen. 01:28:36.930 --> 01:28:39.390 I'll probably push it out after we're done recording. 01:28:39.970 --> 01:28:44.670 I've told myself I'm going to like put one video out a day until I'm caught 01:28:44.670 --> 01:28:46.610 up, but I haven't been meeting that target. 01:28:46.950 --> 01:28:51.990 Anyway, you can always contact us and of course our Patreon where we can, 01:28:52.190 --> 01:28:57.510 where you can give us money and giving us money is good because at various levels, 01:28:57.710 --> 01:29:01.130 you will get like, you know, mentioned on the show. We will ring a bell. 01:29:01.350 --> 01:29:04.590 You'll get a postcard like Yvonne is working on right now. He's going to do 01:29:04.590 --> 01:29:06.450 something amazingly creative. 01:29:06.790 --> 01:29:07.190 Woo! 01:29:07.670 --> 01:29:10.670 Like some sort of massive arts and crafts. Oh, yeah. 01:29:10.830 --> 01:29:12.790 This thing will be worth millions. 01:29:13.510 --> 01:29:17.750 Exactly. Like, you know, it'll be jeweled with diamonds. 01:29:20.650 --> 01:29:24.410 You know, this whole thing, diamonds are being so devalued now with all these 01:29:24.410 --> 01:29:25.830 artificial diamonds, you know? 01:29:26.010 --> 01:29:30.430 So it's not exactly right now. I got to probably need to use like gold leaf. 01:29:30.890 --> 01:29:37.410 There you go. Gold leaf. There you go. Gold leaf. styled yeah yeah got a Donald Trump this is. 01:29:37.410 --> 01:29:42.070 20 25 yes you're gonna get a Donald Trump style postcard yes. 01:29:42.070 --> 01:29:44.790 Yeah anyway yeah you get a postcard you can get a 01:29:44.790 --> 01:29:48.050 mug you can get like stuff you know it's fun but 01:29:48.050 --> 01:29:50.810 most importantly at two dollars a month 01:29:50.810 --> 01:29:53.790 or more we will invite you to the curmudgeon's corner slack or 01:29:53.790 --> 01:29:56.830 we'll we'll do that for free if you ask you know 01:29:56.830 --> 01:29:59.790 but you know we love for the two dollars anyway you know 01:29:59.790 --> 01:30:02.750 anyway on the curmudgeon's corner slack yvonne and 01:30:02.750 --> 01:30:07.970 i are sitting around chatting we're always sitting right when we're when we're 01:30:07.970 --> 01:30:13.570 dealing with the slack we're sitting i mean i could be walking maybe but most 01:30:13.570 --> 01:30:17.850 of the time most of the time i'm sure we are we are sitting around a campfire 01:30:17.850 --> 01:30:22.710 with s'mores talking on the curmudgeon's corner slack, 01:30:23.610 --> 01:30:28.910 Yeah, no. Anyway, so Yvonne, what is something that we discussed on the Curmudgeon's 01:30:28.910 --> 01:30:34.310 Corner Slack this week that we have not discussed on the show at all and would 01:30:34.310 --> 01:30:36.270 entice people to join the Slack? 01:30:36.290 --> 01:30:39.290 Okay, look, I shared this. Nobody made a comment on this. 01:30:39.510 --> 01:30:41.410 So nobody cares about it, so you're bringing it up. 01:30:41.410 --> 01:30:47.030 Apparently, but I am going to bring it up. Taste testing battery-flavored tortilla chips, okay? 01:30:48.070 --> 01:30:52.490 They're there you know this these marginally 01:30:52.490 --> 01:30:55.630 tastier than licking an actual nine volt battery so 01:30:55.630 --> 01:30:58.630 some company went and like tried to create 01:30:58.630 --> 01:31:03.970 chips that taste like how it tasted when you went and i'm sure that i'm not 01:31:03.970 --> 01:31:07.790 the only one that did this i've absolutely done this you know put your tongue 01:31:07.790 --> 01:31:12.590 and licked the two ends of a nine volt battery and he actually went the guy 01:31:12.590 --> 01:31:16.210 went that actually bought a 9-volt battery and licked it, okay, 01:31:16.430 --> 01:31:21.010 just to compare the flavor of the chips. 01:31:21.450 --> 01:31:27.550 I think in summary, let me see. It says here, let's see. 01:31:27.810 --> 01:31:31.790 It's been a while since I last licked a battery, so in the name of science, I bought my own. 01:31:31.930 --> 01:31:35.830 Licking a 9-volt battery is probably safe. The Rewind is clearly that it does 01:31:35.830 --> 01:31:40.290 not recommend or condone licking, biting, or otherwise ingesting real batteries. 01:31:40.350 --> 01:31:43.350 But I figure if it's good enough for my colleague, Sean, it's good enough for 01:31:43.350 --> 01:31:45.210 me. I found the experience pretty unpleasant. 01:31:45.410 --> 01:31:51.430 A small, sharp shock and lingering metallic aftertaste. Not what I usually look for in a tortilla chip. 01:31:51.970 --> 01:31:55.150 Rewind's taste, that's the brand of the chips, is a little less intense. 01:31:55.370 --> 01:31:59.330 There is a sharp, acidic flavor at first, but it's milder than I expected. 01:31:59.550 --> 01:32:04.010 I love salt and vinegar chips, and I've had packs that make me wince much more than these. 01:32:04.230 --> 01:32:08.790 What stands out a little more is that there is a mineral taste underlying it 01:32:08.790 --> 01:32:13.450 all, an odd tankiness that isn't a million miles from battery metal. 01:32:13.650 --> 01:32:17.290 The chips themselves are a little thinner than I like. I prefer a more substantial 01:32:17.290 --> 01:32:22.030 crunch for protein chips, but aren't bad at all. So there you go. 01:32:22.610 --> 01:32:25.570 Apparently, these guys developed a chip... 01:32:26.190 --> 01:32:33.050 Kind of, sort of, tries to bring to the tortilla chip the taste of licking a 9-volt battery. 01:32:33.050 --> 01:32:36.950 I was just looking around to see if I had one, like, just sitting on a shelf. 01:32:37.050 --> 01:32:38.070 I have one, and I am not licking it. 01:32:38.230 --> 01:32:43.030 If I had turned to the left to my shelf and actually seen one, 01:32:43.090 --> 01:32:44.750 I would have licked it right now. 01:32:45.230 --> 01:32:49.610 No, no, I know where I have my 9-volt batteries. I'm not doing it. 01:32:49.830 --> 01:32:53.610 I mean, I know I've got some somewhere. I just don't think they're within reach 01:32:53.610 --> 01:32:55.350 of where I'm sitting right now. 01:32:55.350 --> 01:32:58.330 But you know i did see a video on tiktok 01:32:58.330 --> 01:33:02.770 this week as well it was probably an old one being recycled but it had a slight 01:33:02.770 --> 01:33:08.710 variant on this it had some like woman probably around 20 years old like college 01:33:08.710 --> 01:33:16.570 aged woman with a metal nose ring and and she decided that sort of like, 01:33:17.190 --> 01:33:23.950 you had two ends sticking one out of each nostril yeah and so of course she decided oh god she. 01:33:23.950 --> 01:33:27.770 Put She connected the 9-volt battery to the fucking... Oh, God. 01:33:28.310 --> 01:33:32.130 Yes, exactly. She connected the 9-volt battery to the nose thing. 01:33:32.510 --> 01:33:35.990 And it worked out just about as you would expect. Oh, shit. 01:33:36.870 --> 01:33:37.730 No, shit. 01:33:40.950 --> 01:33:45.810 Anyway, this is how you tested to see if a 9-volt battery was still good. 01:33:46.390 --> 01:33:46.830 True. 01:33:47.190 --> 01:33:50.770 How strong was it? You don't need some fancy electrical tester. 01:33:50.910 --> 01:33:54.210 You just stick it in your mouth. Well, not in your mouth. You lick the terminals. 01:33:54.210 --> 01:33:57.750 You just lick the terminals. You lick the terminals. You don't swallow it. 01:33:57.810 --> 01:34:05.070 Yeah. And you know, it's sort of felt, it's one of those feelings that, yes, it's unpleasant. 01:34:06.120 --> 01:34:08.000 But somehow you're drawn to it. 01:34:08.520 --> 01:34:12.320 I, look, I did it once and was cured. 01:34:12.800 --> 01:34:14.720 You were cured after one try? 01:34:15.220 --> 01:34:16.200 Yep, never again. 01:34:16.360 --> 01:34:21.040 I must say, I have done this many times in my life, not just once. 01:34:21.540 --> 01:34:23.340 No, I did it once, but I said never again. 01:34:23.340 --> 01:34:27.180 To be fair, this was not something where I decided, oh, this is cool. 01:34:27.180 --> 01:34:28.920 I'm going to do it for fun all the time. 01:34:28.940 --> 01:34:33.000 That reminds me about the same thing. It's like, look, things that I've done 01:34:33.000 --> 01:34:36.380 like that electrically once, never again. A, lick the battery. 01:34:36.700 --> 01:34:41.380 B, also, like, when I was little, put my finger in between the prongs as I went 01:34:41.380 --> 01:34:44.620 to plug in something into a socket and get shocked by that. 01:34:45.000 --> 01:34:49.060 Yeah, that's also unpleasant. I said, that's never happening again. 01:34:49.300 --> 01:34:54.680 When you're dealing with AC power as opposed to DC power, there are serious 01:34:54.680 --> 01:34:58.180 health risks. You can get burnt. You can have heart issues. 01:34:58.520 --> 01:35:01.620 You can die from that. now most of 01:35:01.620 --> 01:35:04.320 the time you'll get lucky and you're like i i've i've been 01:35:04.320 --> 01:35:07.380 shocked by ac house power on a 01:35:07.380 --> 01:35:11.200 variety of occasions and i clearly have not died but 01:35:11.200 --> 01:35:14.300 you know i'm lucky also that varies like depending on like 01:35:14.300 --> 01:35:17.520 part of the world like in places that have 220 voltage it's 01:35:17.520 --> 01:35:20.400 worse than places that have 110 or whatever like we 01:35:20.400 --> 01:35:23.420 have or 120 i forget whatever whatever it 01:35:23.420 --> 01:35:26.900 is like some places in the world have double what we have or you 01:35:26.900 --> 01:35:29.760 know and you don't want to do that with like your your you know 01:35:29.760 --> 01:35:33.460 some u.s outlets are high voltage for major appliances and things like that 01:35:33.460 --> 01:35:36.840 you don't want to be you know trying to stick your tongue in between the plug 01:35:36.840 --> 01:35:44.440 and the wall no no no no absolutely not be safe whatever but but yeah nine volt 01:35:44.440 --> 01:35:47.980 battery you know it's probably not going to kill you you don't want to swallow it. 01:35:48.750 --> 01:35:49.610 You don't want to swallow it. 01:35:49.650 --> 01:35:52.190 The other batteries you don't want to swallow that are particularly bad. 01:35:52.290 --> 01:35:53.370 You know those little button batteries. 01:35:53.430 --> 01:35:55.390 The little, yeah, the little button batteries. That's it. 01:35:55.590 --> 01:36:01.650 Because if you actually swallow them, they can destroy your intestines. 01:36:02.030 --> 01:36:02.310 Yes. 01:36:02.470 --> 01:36:06.930 Like that's a major, like go to the ER right now if you ever accidentally swallow 01:36:06.930 --> 01:36:09.630 one of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if your pet swallows it or whatever. 01:36:10.250 --> 01:36:15.210 It can be, you can die a long, painful death from, you know, 01:36:15.370 --> 01:36:18.450 destroying your internals. 01:36:18.750 --> 01:36:20.070 In your digestive system. 01:36:20.190 --> 01:36:22.230 Let's try to avoid doing that. Okay. 01:36:22.450 --> 01:36:29.470 So wait, you, you are not advocating opening a food truck that is 100% battery flavored foods. 01:36:29.810 --> 01:36:30.210 Correct. 01:36:30.810 --> 01:36:33.790 No, I don't think it'll be success. No actual batteries either. 01:36:33.910 --> 01:36:38.590 Little, little bowl of button batteries as like candy appetizers. 01:36:38.790 --> 01:36:40.070 No, no, no, no, no. 01:36:40.230 --> 01:36:42.370 Just like, just like some places give you those little mint. 01:36:42.410 --> 01:36:46.150 Hey, let's wrap them in chocolate. Yeah. You know, let's go try to kill some people. Yay. 01:36:47.070 --> 01:36:52.450 Let's not. Just in case anybody's listed who might want to throw us in jail, 01:36:52.650 --> 01:37:00.310 we're not actually going to distribute batteries at Halloween inside the candy. No. 01:37:00.770 --> 01:37:00.990 Yeah. 01:37:01.270 --> 01:37:05.630 Not happening. Okay, we are done. Thank you, everybody, for joining us yet again. 01:37:05.630 --> 01:37:08.170 Have a great week. Stay safe. All that kind of stuff. 01:37:09.070 --> 01:37:14.390 And here comes the goodbye music. Well, first, we have to say goodbye. Goodbye. 01:37:14.910 --> 01:37:15.250 Goodbye. 01:37:17.670 --> 01:37:27.030 Thank you. 01:37:46.270 --> 01:37:51.210 Okay, have a great birthday party. Say happy birthday to Manu for me. 01:37:51.510 --> 01:37:52.230 All right, I will. 01:37:52.910 --> 01:37:53.330 Later. 01:37:53.870 --> 01:37:54.230 All right.