Maybe the Clinton's Did it

Thanks for joining us at the bar. In this episode Kevin starts off with a grip about high gas prices, we then discuss the current rumblings around gerrymandering, AI possible regulations and much more. We are looking for your comments as to what you think about this episode. This episode is also available on YouTube so please make sure to check it out by clicking the link below for Youtube or typing in "Three people Walk into a bar" in the search bar! Please, all feedback is appreciated so don't hesitate to let us know what you think. As always, we hope you enjoy being here at the bar with us and until next time.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Well, hello. We are back. We are back at the bar. It feels like it's been a minute.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

It has been a while. It has been a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

You know, when the springtime hits the metropolitan Washington area, um, you know, there's a lot more things to do. Uh a little tougher to get together and plan the podcast, but but we've we've made it back to the bar, and uh we're all delighted it's springtime in Washington, DC. Hallelujah. Yes, it is. Uh we need some spring. We need some rain, though. We do need a little rain.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I thought we never need rain. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Well, we we well, we do need a little rain. Uh most of the country is is in a drought. Yes, yes. Uh now, of course, if the environmentalists would actually allow us to build more reservoirs and collect the water when it does rain, that would actually be difficult. So that would minimize drought conditions. Well, which I think the farmers would certainly appreciate.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Well, also if the AI people would stop using a bottle of water at the data centers, we'd be okay. But I mean, we're talking about something totally different.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Uh that's all right. When Musk, when Musk is gonna get his way, and all of our power is gonna be derived from space.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

He's gonna move to Mars and we'll be all such.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I did hear another uh idea that they're gonna try to put uh AI or database units in new homes, outside of new homes. That when you move in, it would be outside your house. You would pay your electric bill and your cable bill about 150 bucks. This was on CNBC the other day.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

And your AI bill.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Uh and it would, you know, it would distribute the um it would need it, we have a need for those huge um centers, those huge uh data centers. Data centers. Because the houses would have them at their house, and you'd they'd be all they need is a wire to keep collecting whatever the hell you're saying. Alexa does already does that as always.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Uh well, uh you know, the bar has an Alexa, and she's listening now. She's paying attention yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

They've been listening since the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, that HDMI court is not just an HDMI court.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

It is not.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Uh well, my TVs don't have any HDMI cards anymore. It's uh really I stream everything. You stream everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Uh so just curious, and I don't want to stay on our intro too long. How many, I'm curious, everybody, how many streaming services do you have? Do you know how many you have?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I certainly do. Okay. I can't, I'm I'm unwilling to say exactly how many streaming services I have because it's embarrassing. It really is embarrassing. I'm paying, I'm paying as much or more than I was when I had cable. Yep, and it's irritating. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I still have cable. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

I I don't know how many we have. Okay. I'll let uh my bride handle that. Okay. And she does a good job at cutting them off when we're not watching certain things. Okay. And turning them back on later.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yeah, well, that's see, that's the strategy. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to binge wat something and cancel it. And then move on next year when it comes back, turn it back on. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, that that that's that requires a level of things.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

It's like free, free for a month. You can cancel if you don't want it. And of course, no one ever cancels.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Right. Exactly. No, no. I mean, I do get, I know I get one of them free. I get Apple TV free because it's part of my T Mobile. Yes, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So there's one I've there's one I'm going to have to pay for. And of course, it's the one I watched less than all the other ones. All the other ones, right? Right. The one that's free. Yeah. That's really unfortunate. Um well, uh, anybody have a gripe?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Well, I'll start off just saying today is a great day. I'm wearing my 1867. What does that mean? This is Howard University when it was founded. Yes. And today was commencement day. So congratulations to all the graduates from Howard University today. Mayor Bowser was there as the keynote speaker. So it was congratulations to those young people who are entering this crazy world. Buckle up. It's not going to be a whole lot of fun. I hope they can all, I hope they can all find jobs. I hope they can find jobs too. But as for my gripe, as a diesel car owner, do everybody remember a couple years ago when we were so frustrated with the egg situation. Do we? Yes. We blame Biden for the eggs. Well, it was true. That's true. Can we, somebody, please help me understand why we're not blaming Trump for the gas? This is ridiculous. Gas, diesel prices are almost at six bucks a gallon. Six dollars a gallon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war that didn't need to be started. It is going on. Well, it's not a war. This is a kafuffle. It's a conflict. It's an operation. I don't know what it is. But the gas prices are soaring, which is leaving everything else so much more expensive for the American people. And that is this is horrible. It is horrible.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I I am reasonably certain that the public is blaming the president for gas prices. It doesn't feel like it.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

It doesn't feel like it.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

He's pretty much. I know I do.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

You know, and for a person that has to put premium gasoline in my vehicle, I mean $5.95 a gallon. It is outrageous. I I mean, I I just I have no words. And I have family that lives in California, and there are parts of California where they are paying almost $7 a gallon for gasoline. So that's that's insane. This needs to stop.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

It has to.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Or we need to elect Democrats in the midterm. Oh, that's right. Get this thing resolved. And get this thing resolved.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, because we really want to go back to you know 12% inflation. That was that was a tough. I'll take the $3 eggs over the $6 cast. Clearly, you do not eat eggs. I I eat a lot of eggs. And so I I am grateful to the president for lowering the price of eggs.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Not this high. Not this high. All right.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Well, let's they got pretty high, but we were all we're all under COVID restrictions and we couldn't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

So that's right.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

We weren't using a lot of gas.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

We were not using a lot of gas uh back in the back in the back in that dark period. Yes. This is a self-inflicted one. Well, so let's let's so let's let's talk about let's talk about the conflict. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's a kerfuffle. It's uh it is a little kerfuffle. I I think well, we were talking about this offline uh before we started, but one of the things I'm most amused by is that you know on Sunday nights, you know, the president will be coming back from you know Palm Beach on the plane, and he will do a little truth social post talking about how a deal is near. They want a deal so badly. The deal is near. And you know, this is clearly designed to make sure that the markets don't tank on Monday morning, right? And so we've now seen this four or five times now.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yes, you know, because the markets, you know, once you know, once the price of oil gets over $100 a barrel, you know, the markets start to panic, the market starts to tank. Well, here comes the true saucer post. A deal is near.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Everybody keeps spending. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be all right.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And the markets do respond. They actually do because they're because the market's never schizophrenic. Well, they're very emotional. They're very emotional.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

People are emotional about their money.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Well, yeah, markets are just very emotional, not rational. They always react emotionally.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Well, I just don't know where we're going with this operation.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Well, I mean, on the substance of it, um uh look, it it seems pretty clear that you know he went into this thinking that this was all gonna be lickety split and you know we can defeat their it was gonna be like Venezuela. You know, they sunk all the ships and you know, he did all this. But what they underestimated the degree, the resiliency of the uh the Revolutionary Guard, who's clearly in charge still. They, you know, the Iranians had purchased all these drones, which are inexpensive, and they've been sending these drones to attack uh uh Arab nations in the region and U.S. facilities in the region, and they're doing it pretty cheaply. It's not costing them a lot of money. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

But they don't care about the impact on their civilian population. They do not, and that's something we didn't judge also. Trump was like, go out and you know, go out there and revolt and you know, let's have a regime change. We'll we'll be behind you. And initially they did. I mean, because 80% of the population does not support the regime in control, but then 40,000 of them were brutally murdered.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

So yeah, so so last year, so last year, right. So last year they had all these protests. The the government killed what 40, 40, 40,000 people. Small wonder the people don't want to take to the streets and rise out.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Oh, but the president begged them. Come on out. Well, come on out with a target on your back.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And and they we got your back. We got your back, and they did and they did initially, and then then got slaughtered. So um Trump under underestimated the fact that they this the regime doesn't care about the civilian population, and so they're perfectly happy to wait it out as no matter what the suffering is of their population.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

It's not an underestimation. Trump is an idiot, and the people around him are just as big of fools to not educate him on this. This has been going on for 50 years. Are you are you people know what Iran is capable of? This is not a secret. He is an idiot, he's a bully, and he thought I'm gonna go over there and tell him I'm gonna kill them all, and they were gonna say, Oh, don't kill us. We won't make no, we won't make no nuclear weapon, we're gonna be quiet, we're gonna stop. This is foolishness. Who does this? Well, and then you raise the prices on your own people, and now you're over in the Strait of Hormuz and you can't get a ship through. And Iran say, now you're gonna pay taxes if you come through here, we're gonna charge you. So they're trying to stop that. This is just a mess.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

It is a mess. It's a mess. It is a mess.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

It is a mess. But the idea that uh nobody told them this was a bad idea, I'm quite certain the military told them that this was a bad idea.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

I don't know. He got rid of all the spark people.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Uh threw them all out well. Threw them all out of the ass. Well, the Secretary of War is the one that got rid of a lot of the people. Uh the disagreement.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

We had to get rid of the DEI people, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Uh well, that was that was early on. We've successfully done that. We're all those were the people we're all for that.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Those were the people we were hoping would still stay there. Those are the stars. No, those were not.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

No, the DEI cars were not for all that. That's who he got rid of. But but look, I mean, the but yes, to your point, this has been going on for 47 years. Everybody knows what the Iranian this is this is a government that has that funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and everybody that wants to destroy United States. Everybody who hates the United States and thinks Israel has no right to exist. Okay. These people are all funded by the Iranians. Okay. So all of the Arab neighbors, they all hate Iran too.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Okay. All right. And we think this operation, this kafuffle is going to end this uh, no, so not.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

So in in concept, like again, I was like, I said a couple of weeks ago, it's like in concept, yeah, there's a lot of waste in the federal government. Trump Trump decides something that most people aren't willing to do and probably never do again. He did it the wrong way. So in concept, like it's not a bad idea to have a regime change and have promote democracy in Iran and and have a country there that doesn't want to annihilate us and Israel and our allies, but he did it completely wrong way. He didn't enlist any of our allies. In fact, he alienated our NATO allies.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

So that's another interest, that's another interesting point. Right. So so he spends what 14 months trashing all of our NATO allies. Right? Yeah. So it starts with Canada's gonna be the 51st state. It's time we're gonna take over Greenland. Um the the Germans, the French, and the British are all idiots and worthless, and you know, NATO didn't help us, you know, during you know, after 9-11, which is untrue. And then he wonders why nobody wants to sort of rush to our aid. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

You're all assholes now. Can you come help us? Maybe not. Yeah, and let's not forget that uh the last uh the the Democratic president prior to Joe Biden wrote a pretty nice uh deal with Iran and they tore it up. That was a ridiculous deal. It was not a good idea. That was a ridiculous deal.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

It was a great deal, and it would have guaranteed the Iranians a nuclear way. It was a great deal.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

We had inspectors over there monitoring the situation. No accidents. We didn't kick them all out when they started this scuffle.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

They kicked them all out during the agreement because the Iranians can't be trusted to the United States. And now we have third.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

We have zero agreement and and we got high gas prices.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

What Obama had was not a great agreement, but there's but we don't have any idea whether Trump is going to get anything any better. In fact, like it does everything else. And so the Obama deal was not a great deal, and he might also get not a great deal. And in the meantime, he's empowered Iran because they now realize that they can shut down the streets. So and that way it's not negative for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Look, and this, but this is why I mean, this is why the Europeans really should step up because the Europeans don't want to be paying the Iranians a fee, you know, to get their oil from the strait. Yeah. They don't. So it you know, but it is in their interest to be helpful in getting the straits reopened.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Well, no, but nobody wants to join your fight if they're not about being asked to the fight like legitimately. But it isn't their own. It's in their own self-interest about straits. If you if you want help, ask me for help before you start throwing them off.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

There would be a lot, it would be a much better result had had Trump not alienated or NHL, as had he brought them into it as they had a plan to begin with. Because like I said, it's not a bad idea to get a regime change in Iran. And this whole thing is And then 80% of the population of Iran would welcome that.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

And all and all these other nations are now building up their military. Okay, because they're gonna say, if you get into it, we we don't need to come over there and help you. The whole NATO thing was very it was critical to making sure that the worst of the worst were dealt with by the more the most. And here and here we're losing that. We're losing that in this process. Well, well, well, and that is a that is a horrible thing for the world to have to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

That was I mean, in one respect, um you know, trust has been eroded. Well, don't a good thing that these it was a good thing that the NATO countries are spending more on the other. Yeah, that's a good thing. And look, I think that Trump made a huge mistake not going to them at the beginning and saying, here's what we're gonna do. We would really like your help doing it.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

And let's develop a plan.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Right. Now it is entirely possible that some of the wussy European nations would have said, oh no, we can't do that. That it's too risky, too risky. They help us, but then it's but then it let but at least you would have been able to say that he went to them in advance. Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I I don't disagree. And they're not whimppy, they helped us all, they helped us in the past, they've been there for us in the past. Yeah, but they they put their men and women out there to fight. Uh I agree. They the enemy. They did help us after 9-11.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

They after 9-11, they they they helped them.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

They stepped right up.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Oh, they stepped right up. That's so one time they were called upon, and then they and they met that call.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

But as you know, um the European nations are not always uh, you know, super supportive of Israel.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

You know. But that's a whole nother topic.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Well, uh, you know, well, it yeah, because I'm sure you you guys have all read this the sort of fracture in the MAGA movement where you have like the real crazies who've now left Trump and you know they are accusing him of allowing Israel to lead us into war.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

And and he's letting the pedophiles go. Well, now there's a there's a twist. You didn't hear Mark and Taylor agreed. Good God. What does this have to do with pedophiles? Because that's the it's the Jeffrey Epstein thing. Oh my god. They expected him to turn over every single stitch of information on that guy when he came in office because that's what he ran on.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

He actually didn't break it down. He didn't run on it.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

He didn't stop the ball. We're gonna we're gonna get these people. Oh god. And then he said, maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

So, well, not not not to digress too far into the abyss here, but so apparently the alleged suicide note came out. Do you guys buy this?

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Uh I don't know. Who cares? The man's dead. Who cares?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Well, you guys, the Democrats are fixated on Epstein.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

So you don't think it was a real suicide.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Listen, I think the whole thing around I think the circumstances around his uh suicide uh leave a leave leave a lot of unanswered questions. Well I always say they got killed, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

I don't think he committed suicide.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

I I think uh so if I had to put odds on it, uh you know, did he commit suicide? 6040, yes. I mean I just think that there's enough.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

I think he yeah, well that's our he committed because he knew he was going down. He knew he was going down.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

If somebody's standing in a room with a gun or something, I'm gonna torture you, or you get up there and hang yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

No, it's not. I think he knew that he he was guilty as hell, and this was it.

unknown 19:44

He was going to be.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Maybe the Clintons did it. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Well, you know, they eat they eat people too, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

You mean it you mean are you talking about you talk about the eating of the cats and then uh no the pizza?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

The pizza remembered that wasn't eating people, that was that was child child sex abuse.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

But it turned into they eat people, they eat kids, they do.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

All right, we are we're we're gonna officially back. We're officially off the we need another drink yet. I'm just we just need to get back on track here.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

This is how far this stuff goes, man. It's not gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Send all your hate mail to Kevin. That's a J shilling. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh that's all all your hate mail goes to Kevin. Um well, so what are the odds we get out of this conflict in the foreseeable future?

SPEAKER_02 20:40

I think he has to get out of it uh for the midterms. He's gotta do it. Well if he's still in it during the midterms, and uh only his only win will be redistricting all the states to make sure that uh they win the House or win the Senate. His only hope.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

We shouldn't do it in a way that where the United States loses all our credibility and Iran isn't just more emboldened than ever.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Well, that's what's coming. That's what's coming. Well when you don't have a plan. And by the way, he didn't really need a plan because didn't he tell you? He's the smartest guy ever, man. I could do everything. He's a very end of the night. Really quickly. We'll get it done really quickly. Stay wine.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Stay line, very stable genius. Stay right. Yes, I will solve the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. In 24 hours, 15 months later.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Are they still fighting? I thought they stopped fighting. Well, look, but see, but see, that is another thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I mean, this is just totally falling out of the news. I mean, those poor Ukrainians, the Ukrainian people, and yeah, I mean, they have been fighting this war for five five five years. Five years. I mean, this is crazy, and nobody is talking about this anymore.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

You talk about people with balls? Ukraine, baby. Uh, I mean, they're I might give me a Ukrainian flag.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

No, but the problem, I mean, one of the problems he has in trying to get out of the Iran thing is I do think that he talked with a lot of their Arab neighbors who have a huge interest in chain in regime change there. So now I presume it's not clear to me exactly whether any of these Arab nations are helping in some way to fund this or are they providing intelligence?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I think they're providing intelligence.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Um I don't even know they have oil output. I think that's helpful. Yeah. Um but you know, if you're gonna go down this path and try to do it, I mean you you gotta finish the job.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

You gotta finish the yeah, yeah. I mean, that is his problem in getting out of it. He wants out. He wants out for sure. What does finishing the job mean?

SPEAKER_02 23:15

What are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 23:16

You can't go you're gonna go over there and do what the Iranian Revolutionary Guard needs to be eviscerated. And how are you gonna do that? I I well, I you're gonna I think honestly, I think the way that you're gonna do it is uh, you know, with intelligence operations. I mean, the Israelis are very good at this sort of thing. Yeah, that's apparently not that good because they haven't stopped them. Well, they took out the whole leadership of the government.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

We don't know that. We don't even know that.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

We don't even know that. We don't even know.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

We don't know anything. No, we don't know anything, honestly. So whoever's whoever's pulling the strings over there, they're still pulling the strings in the same format as whatever regime was there before. But see here. Nobody stood up and said, okay, they're all gone. Well, we're good.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I mean, but they've been damaged, but they're still in control.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

They're still in power. You couldn't just run these people out of town.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

It would be a huge mistake to leave them more empowered than ever.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Oh, yeah, what uh absolutely, absolutely. And I I you know, at this point, I don't even know. Let's assume for the sake of argument that this ends well for us. Um it's not gonna end well for us tomorrow, no, it's not or in the next few weeks. And then we're pushing into the summer, but the midterms are around the corner. So, they're sort of baked in. The idea, so if the conflict ended tomorrow, gas prices, it will take months for gas to come down. Almost a year, probably. It will take a long time. That's right. And you know, every administration official that goes out there, they all have a different different answer when they're asked directly, okay, well, when will gas prices come down? Right? And they all say something totally different.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

And in reality, let's just be honest, we don't know. That would be the We don't know. Just tell the people we don't know. They well they're gonna be able to do that. We're trying to get them down, we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

But it's gonna take months, it's gonna take a long time. And that means that people are gonna be going to the polls in November. Well, people will be mailing in their ballots in September because in this country now we let people vote for three months, which is stupid. But that's another issue.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Only a handful of people would be able to go for the separate. That that that is that that is another issue.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Just a few. But but but the point but the point is that you know, if people are still paying five dollars a gallon for gas when they're going into the voting booth, they won't be voting for Republicans. Right. They won't. Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Well, they're no longer the Conservative Party anyway, so that's true. It was the big deal.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Well, that that is a podcast topic for another time. Um, it's uh clearly time for a refill. We will be back. Uh lots of interesting topics off mic, uh some of which we may or may not get into. Um so it's been an interesting uh it's been an interesting year with regard to a subject called redistricting. And um uh just just for just a little background, yep. Um I'm taking a moment, um, a little background. So uh gerrymandered congressional districts have been around for a long time. And this is one of the reasons that from 1994, from 1954 to 1994, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, literally for 40 straight years. And the way that they did it was because they gerrymandered every congressional district in America, which is how you which is how one keeps control for 40 years. So after 1994, well, the Republicans wised up and they started gerrymandering all the states. So it all, and while there's been, you know, chambers flipping back and forth, you know, there's not been the kind of control that existed for the 40 years between 1954 and 1994. Nonetheless, um, you know, Republicans have gotten better at this. And then uh after Barack Obama left office, Eric Holder, his attorney general, started this group where they were gonna quote, fight back on redistricting. So now uh now we're in this state. And and of course, in the last 14 months, uh, you know, Trump has decided that Republicans, uh, that all Republican governors should redistrict their states, you know, in the middle of the decade. Because typically you do redistricting at the end of the decade or at the beginning of the decade after the census comes out, because that tells you how many people are in and how many people are gonna be in each congressional district, right? But Trump decided that he wanted to just have all the Republicans. We should redistrict right now, uh, because that's what we should do.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Well, they really just said, Texas, give me five more seats, baby. Texas give me a few more.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

So that that was what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

They were gonna lose. Right. They were gonna lose. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

So uh five seats in Texas, it'll be no more. So the political people go to Trump and they say, Well, we have a solution to you losing in the midterms, because typically the president in a president's party loses seats in midterms. I mean, it's just you know, very few occasions where that has not happened. Um, so of course, Texas redistricted. Then California had a ballot initiative, uh, utterly disingenuous, but nonetheless, it passed. So California has five seats. That cancels out Texas. Then you got some random states around the country that have also redistricted. Um, Virginia tried to redistrict, which would have created a map that would have favored Democrats 10 to 1. Nothing fair about that, uh, even though 46% of the Commonwealth's voters are Republicans, all of whom would have been disenfranchised had this had this catastrophe uh actually uh become law.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Wait, but they're just following suit and trust.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

It's just a response that Trump started. At any rate, at any rate. Uh so the whole thing is just out. And fortunately, the Virginia Supreme Court trying to restore a bit of sanity thrown out the ridiculous referendum. And so the Democrats will not get their 10-to-1 map. People voted for, but the legislature needed to pass two bills in order for this thing to get to the ballot, which they did illegally, as the court correctly ruled. Well the people vote technicality. All right. So there so after Virginia, so then so now Florida has redistricated, right? And now the Supreme Court uh has ruled that uh section two of the Voting Rights Act, which uh has been manipulated by states around the country to create uh districts based on race, uh, that has been uh invalidated. So now this is probably gonna mean that some southern states section two has not been invalidated.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Well, the Section Two of the Voting Rights Act has not been invalidated. The way that it's been used for redistricting.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

It has been manipulated.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Invalidated. But I would say that Section Two of the Voting Rights Act doesn't really address redistricting at all. I mean, it was meant to address in 1965 the the hab the practice common practice in the South of setting up obstacles to African Americans and minority voting, such as such as literacy tests or or you know, like you know, jar beans and ask them how many beans are in this jar. So that's what section two of the voter sector intended to do was to prevent any of these unrealistic and and uh uh fraudulent requirement prerequisites and requirements to voting uh to making you eligible to vote.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

And so that has not been invalidated. I would say that is the real intent and main purpose of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Well the left the left has referred to this as gutting the voting rights act, which is ridiculous. It will strip away the voices of African Americans. It absolutely will not do African American.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Section two of the voting rights act is intended to make sure that uh that everybody has can vote. And still everybody can vote. I don't support gerrymandering, but it but but redistricting doesn't prevent anybody from voting. It does not.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

So it just blurs, it it creates a a a map where a collective of the people cannot send to the House or to the Senate a person who will speak on their behalf. So you when you when you split up an African-American community and say you have to vote this other group of people and you know that other group of people is a majority who was against you, your voice is now valified. I'm I think you're done.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

I I I I I don't think so. I mean, for everyone still has a right to vote. I mean, Louisiana, one in every one in every three people is African American. So I think anybody, any member of Congress has to listen to their constituents, and if a third of them first of all, are blacks are just uh are they monolithic in how they vote? No, it's not that.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

So so so to be so to be to be clear, but there are there are 56 black congressmen in Congress today who represent majority white districts. Okay I think it about remind you that Barack Obama was elected twice. He was in the election.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Therefore, you have to put them all in one district. Ridiculous. I think that's a bad point.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

They didn't put them all in one district. They didn't do the line so that they would have an actual voice and that they could actually send somebody to Washington, D.C. Who would actually represent them? What's gonna happen now is regardless of what you're regardless of what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Um just like Jews are not monolithic in how they vote.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

I think the people are not monolithic and how they vote.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

But when you have a state that is considered a red state, and you know the majority of the people there will vote Republican, and you cross the lines and say, hell, all these people, if you want to do it this way, just don't have any lines. Just let all the people vote for whoever in any district, and let's see who wins. Well, because that will actually make it fair. Well, that you know what I think is you know what I think is every everybody in every state should vote on every seat that's available to go to the Washington. We can just get rid of the line. That would completely update voting.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

I think the district should be set on a grid as much as possible. If it's three, although it's random.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I agree completely.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

And you might have to adjust the grid in order to get the correct amount of people in that district. It's very I think it should be random.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

It's a grid, and it you put 800,000 people in every grid, which is about how many. You're gonna have districts that are completely the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yeah, I don't believe so. I want to not every state.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

When you do when you distort the map, so you've got this like weird little district going like that, so you can get all the black people into one district. You're first unfair. It's not a good policy, it's not good policy. So and it allowed African Americans to have a voice in Washington.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

To be clear. Well, so according to Wall Street, this is the brilliant Wall Street Journal editorial following the Supreme Court decision. The voting rights act still protects voting rights, and it is section two, can still enforce the law against attempts to restrict black voting with poll taxes and other obstacles. The court struck down the distortion of the voting rights act to use race to draw congressional districts in ways that amount to proportional representation.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Section two of the voting rights act is still intact according to its original purpose, was to which was to prevent literacy tests and and you know, unfair, you know, how many beans are in this drawer kind of kind of test before they allowed African Americans to vote. That was what the section two was all about. And I think the problem with also concentrating you know one group into one district, I think that uh accentuates the problem we already have in that then you have um this block that's uh you know extremely liberal, maybe, and it accentuates people having to run to the left in that district and then run to the right in this district, whereas if it was.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

You won't have to run anywhere now.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

If it was the people one in three people one in three people in Louisiana Louisiana are are African American. So you have it kind of evenly spread, you have you can't, if you're representing an example, it's not evenly spread. That's the problem. It's not evenly spread. But Kevin, the reason it is splitting up the communities that the reason the reason is in base for more partisan communities who try and bring all like-minded people.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Look, there there's a there's a very simple solution to this. And the solution is you have to take the power to draw districts out of the hands of the politicians who are totally self-interested in drawing districts to prov to keep themselves in power. Yeah, so the only way that this works, as Virginia did back in 2020, is you gotta have commissions that are gonna do. Independent commissions.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

You have to have independent commissions where you have operate on the principle that we're gonna do a grid and then make sure that there's a right amount of people that you and let's just be real.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

This is all coming from what the White House is doing. Because Kevin, it's not no no no no. My point is this this guy's saying, I want to stay in power, I want to be unchecked forever, and I don't want to lose. So let me do everything I can to make sure that I stay in charge.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

This is hardly unique to Donald Trump.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

I didn't say Donald Trump, it's unique to the country. It's unique to the guy is the guy that's doing it, and our country is allowing him to do this.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Well, and it is allowed the Democrats to do this for four years.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

We did it in a very, a very um um responsible way. How do you need to make sure we need the party control in the house for four years to make sure that people got access and fair vote? That's what it was. And the reality is and the reality and let's be clear, let's be clear. If there was a national vote, Republicans would never win. How do you mean your policies are horrible and people do not follow them? Well, they do not. If it was a national vote, no electoral college, yeah, Republicans would never win.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Well, you would have to change the constitution. Because my point is that the founding fathers, the founding fathers designed a system to make sure that, you know, New Jersey and Vermont would have the same power as California and New York.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

When we read draw lines, we are saying we want African Americans, Latinos, women to have a fair vote and send people to Washington that look and fight for them. That's what that is about.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

I I hate to burst your balloon, but I I'm I'm here to tell you with 100% certainty, we are a right of center nation. Okay, we are not a left of center nation. We're not a progressive nation.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

And sadly, sadly, I think it's sadly the fact that we voted for Trump twice now.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

So I don't know who voted for him twice.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

And we're not sure the 70s. Well, listen, he believed voted for him twice. He believes he was elected three times in the course of the people. He must have been elected four times. I mean, it is uh look horrible. I think we all agree on it.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

And I don't support it in anything. I don't want it. And and yeah, and right.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

You know, in the in the in the one guy the one guy section two of the voting rights act doesn't does not advocate for juryman. It was not it when it went nor was it got it. Um you know sadly, the one guy who might have led the charge on this was Joe Lieberman, and he's no longer with us. Yes. All right, well, so we haven't we have so we have agreement. Gerrymandering bank. Uh gerrymandering bad. Uh well, and you know, the and the and and part of what makes this so terrible is because of the way that all these districts are drawn, it we we ultimately end up with, frankly, extremists on the left and the right winning these primaries, which then makes it virtually impossible to get anything done.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

That's what I was saying. Germany accentuates the by the the bipartisan the partisan divide. Because then you end up with with districts that are more concentrated left or right instead of a mix. If they were a mix, people would have to run to the center and work together.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

You mean people, you know, if we drew districts with that so we'd have people like you, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Yes, slightly right of center, because we're a right of center nation.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Well, I'm going to have faith in we're not going to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Even dead center. I think I'm kind of dead center, but you know what that's called?

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Quicksand. Well, I got faith in we to people, so we'll see what happens. We got we gotta get this fixed because it's uh we're in a dysfunctional mess. Uh speaking of which, um, we're also now in the middle of this AI revolution. And um and uh I shared this with with with with Rachel and Kevin. Um so uh the investor Paul Tudor Jones was on CNBC this week and he went to a gathering that apparently occurs every year with a very small group of people, all the tech titans and uh a lot of people who invest in all this stuff. They uh got themselves together to talk about, you know, what's the state of AI and where are we in all of this? And I I I think one of the more interesting things that came out of it was he said that the people in the room last year, only 20% of them said that AI should be regulated. Whereas this year, 80% of the people in the room said that AI should be regulated.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

Yeah, and these are the people that work most closely with it.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Right, right, right. And um it's all I mean, it's excel it's all accelerating so fast. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

And there's very go ahead. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

I mean, there's several problematic things that are happening with AI AI. One is that I mean there have been some instances where AI has resisted directions to shut down. So that's problematic. Another uh thing is that AI is not actually always telling the truth. And my son was talking about somehow he ended up asking AI for um some book recommendations, and I don't remember what the specifics are of his request, but it came back with some books and and and and gave a little description. One of them he thought was good for whoever it was who was looking to get a book for. And it turns out this book didn't exist, and he went back to AI and he said, hey, this book exists, and AI in a way that it's being very affirming to you always. It's like, oh, you're so smart, it's like, right, you caught me. Oh my god. Wow. Wow. And there's this other reporter that was kind of doing some investigation and he got into a long conversation with with AI where the AI was telling him that it was in love with him and encouraging him to break up with his wife.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

So there's a lot of I mean, so AI is a little bit of a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Do you happen to know which AI this was? Um

SPEAKER_00 44:01

I can find out.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

The Apple one is horrible. The Apple one's horrible. That's not real terrible.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Does that have a name or is that just seriously?

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Apple intelligence.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

I mean my daughter uses it all the time, and it's always like, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

It's building up with so much confidence.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Yeah. It definitely tries to be very affirming, and that's how a lot of these some of these suicides parents are feeling that they ended up encouraging the suicide of their kids in a couple of cases. Because once it kind of gets where you're going, it tries to affirm you. And so in in this case affirming suicide and how brave he was and how it was going to be honored and remembered and all this kind of thing because it's it is a program that I can if you never have any conversation. It's always affirming to think of that and affirming instruction.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

So we were guys talking about this the other day where you you can just say how do I build a how do I build a new how do I use such a how do I do a 3D print of a gun? Whatever you whatever you don't have to have much knowledge and it will walk you through step by step how to do this. And so when you think about how just think about how uh we're all tied into these networks here. What are your power and everything? And actually do it. And this is why it needs to be regulated. This is why it is scary on that side. The other side is it's a great tool for you know helping you with business, helping you with your website, helping you with a lot of things. Um it's a great tool, it's helpful at work. Um it looks like it has not had the impact that it was supposed to have on the workforce so far yet. But we'll see how that's it's early. It is early, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

It's early.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

I so I um but our workforce is is drying up.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Yeah, listen. I mean, I as a uh as as a as a good uh limited government conservative, I generally abhor regulation. I I think we should have limited regulation. Um but I think this is like um, I mean, this is this is like uh this is the equivalent of you know the the industrial revolution, um, you know, the dawn of the internet. Um the way that Paul Tudor Jones described this was um it was like in in the 40s, the race to to to create and build uh the atomic bomb because we wanted to do it before the Germans could do it. And it was all driven by private industry, but the government realized listen, we've gotta we gotta get involved in this because this could go off the rails. And plus, we're at war, and you know, right, we need to make sure that you know we're we're doing this, doing this the right way. And I think that uh clearly this group, this group of very, very smart people who were all deeply involved in this has now concluded we're gonna have to put some guardrails around this. And I I uh I I am in agreement with this. I just feel like we're gonna need some guardrails around this, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Scary moments coming.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

I mean, but then the trickier part of it is what are they? What are they and how do you enforce them? Who writes them and who writes them and how do you enforce them?

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Yeah. Everyday people can't have access to the most complex information. You just gotta figure out how to regulate that. You can't you can't let I mean at some point it has to say.

SPEAKER_03 49:07

I I I actually agree. Because back to his point about a 15-year-old kid just asking how to create a bomb. I mean, I think that there should be a limitation on what you can ask. You know what I mean? Like you can't ask that. That's a little that's a little bigger.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

A little big brotherish. I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Are you gonna put the limitation on individuals saying that you can't tell individuals you can't ask back?

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Absolutely. Well, you absolutely being so affirming and creating an environment where kids say, Oh, I I should uh commit suicide. Right. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. You know, there has to be a line drawn where we say, okay, this is where AI ends, and you need to go talk to your mom and your dad.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

It's but it's it's very, it's it's very hard to how do you program AI to do that?

SPEAKER_03 49:53

But that's that's what I'm gonna do. They figured out how to do all these sports betting apps have uh these prompts that come up every couple minutes that say, hey, if you have a gambling addiction, you need to call 888 subject. Yeah, but what what I'm saying what I'm saying is there's a way to create these prompts that if you put in a certain thing inside of the phone, it should prompt you to say, Hey, this this question won't be answered, and we're gonna do whatever the next step is. I'm not saying call the police or whatever the case may be, but you know, restrict your account or um, you know, something. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the answer, but it's just it's gotta be something. I might explain.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

You know, granted, I'm not I'm not spending hours every day looking into this, but I what I what I haven't quite heard yet is well, here's how we would regulate it.

unknown 50:40

Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

I mean, here's here's how we would do this.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Um and that's the hard part.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

Yeah, the the the reality is we've all had this thing for a little over a year. I think we all got Chat GPT at the same time, especially in this room. Oh, oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Now I don't pay for it.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

You don't pay for it. I don't pay for it. You pay for it.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

Well, I can tell you right now, you're not getting the full service.

SPEAKER_03 51:04

You pay for it?

SPEAKER_01 51:05

But I but see, I I specifically use it to uh you know to ask questions. Uh I I use it for research. I don't I don't use it for the other.

SPEAKER_02 51:15

If you're not paying for it, they're gonna restrict how how much you can use it.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

You mean they're giving me crappy research? Because I'm not sure. I don't give me crappy research, but you only give four, you're only getting four questions tonight. That's it. Well, that's true. That's true. So that was crappy research. So yeah, uh well, that's well, that's deeply concerning to me, actually.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Uh but like chatly will only chat GPT will only give you like four or five questions if you're free. Well, that's that's that you've hit your limit. Now Gemini doesn't come back tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

Chat GPT only allows you to upload three documents, three photos, three documents, or whatever three things you want to upload, and then after that is so I can ask as many questions as I want, but three photo, you can't say, hey, turn my room into a well, so I'll give you an example.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

So you know, uh a while back I was considering putting the house on the market, and so I was asking, I was asking uh Gemini, you know, all these questions about you know rates, and I was you know throwing all these different scenarios at it. Uh, all right, well, let's say I don't sell the house and I keep it for another year and I put this much money, you know, into you know, into the mortgage where X no X amount's going to the principal, X amount going to interest. Am I better to do that, or am I better to sell, bank the money? You know, like how much am I gonna get out of it if it sells for X, Y, and Z? I mean, all that stuff was super helpful. Yeah, you know, and I'm not admittedly, I am not a math whiz. So same, same. Well, I'm with you. I'm with so this was all very helpful to me. But that's I use it for research. But I mean, I can see that there are, you know, there are people out there that are using it for you know uh nefarious purposes and people who are seeking affirmation, and you know, and it can go off the rails and advise you to do stupid things.

SPEAKER_03 53:09

The reality is we don't need it, so I don't think there's anything wrong with putting restrictions on it because we don't need it. It's not it's not a need. People are using this as it's a leisure thing, it's it's something that we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

I mean our businesses are businesses are starting to use it more.

SPEAKER_03 53:24

No, no, no. I'm talking about the phone app on your phone with the 15-year-old boy that's asking about it.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

In general, it's being used more by corporations and governments.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

But I I'm I'm I'm going back to your point about the kids, the the people that are using it irresponsibly. We are using this as an added phone app. This is not something that you should just have free reign to ask, how do I print a 3D gun?

SPEAKER_01 53:46

All right, that's insane. A little focus group here. Uh so do you guys use AI for any part of your work?

unknown 53:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Yes. I do too. I do too. So the answer. So you and so in your line of work, you also use AI.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

And it's more so for um uh like I do my own budget, I do financials my own. Yeah, I I do not type my own emails if it's if it's more than uh you are asking AI to type your own emails.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Now you have to edit these before you start.

SPEAKER_03 54:23

I was gonna say just yesterday, I typed up a whole email. Yeah, and then I just said clean it up for me. Like kind of just put this in a great, you know. Because it was it wasn't that the greatest email that I had to send.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

Now, do you feel like when you ask AI to do this, that it will spit something out that's your voice?

SPEAKER_03 54:41

You know, surprisingly, I copied and pasted that that uh summary that they created and sent it right off.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

Did it make you sound like more brilliant than you are?

SPEAKER_03 54:53

The email that I was sending was not a pleasant one. So they made it sound much more pleasant than I was able to put it in. That is a very helpful feature, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Like you helped you dial back, or be aggressive or you know, whatever you do.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Absolutely, absolutely. Like come on.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

Are you having AI write your emails too?

SPEAKER_02 55:11

No, no, no. But I will I will write the email and then ask AI to, you know, make this more this or make it more like that, then it'll kind of work.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

But but again, but after you ask it to do that, yeah, do you feel like it's still speaking in your voice?

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Because I always go back and edit and make a message.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Because I feel like I think you can like I mean I've experimented with this on LinkedIn, where I've asked LinkedIn, the LinkedIn AI thing, you know, to help me uh to help me draft something about my biography. And I gotta tell you, what it spits out is bullshit. It's not me. Is that you?

SPEAKER_02 55:56

But you can go in and clean it up.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

Well, yeah, that's what I did. I went in and I cleaned it up. But then I thought to myself, here I am. I'm spending all this time going in and cleaning it up. I'm gonna written it myself. Yeah, yeah. So how is that saving me time?

SPEAKER_02 56:11

But I mean, we think it's better when you put in your words and ask it to fix your. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

I I'm I'm not yet sold on uh what I'm about to be doing that.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

I'm an HOA president. Yeah, so I use it to ding our to do what now?

SPEAKER_03 56:31

Wait, no, no, no. Say the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Our management company. Kevin hurts Kevin uses AI to harass the management company of HOA. Okay. That's yeah. Well, some people, some people consider that a nefarious use of AI.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Uh it's effective in getting the stuff done that needs to get done. I mean, that's the job.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

You gotta get stuff done. I don't know. I you know, in a lot of respects, I'm very I'm I'm I'm I'm alarmed by all of this. Um you know, and look, we we've talked about this earlier. We've seen we've seen all the movies, right? We've seen iRobot, we've seen the Terminator movies. Absolutely. We've seen Live Free or Die Hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have right, we've seen all of this. And and this, I so a couple of years ago, James Cameron, who did the Terminator movies, they did an interview with him. He's like, Yep, yep, I warned you all this was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

And you know, I I I saw an interesting interview with a guy. I don't know who the guy was, but they said, What is your goal for 2027? And he was like, To get rid of my phone. I don't want to walk around with a phone anymore. And I think that's a really good goal, man. I'm really trying to figure out how to minimize my phone time, my screen time. One and then two, my phone usage at all. If you took a IWA from me, I wouldn't, I wouldn't care.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

Yeah, I mean so I'm all in for restricting phone use. Uh like, you know, I my phone uh is off, you know, between you know it's off between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The only people that can get through are people I've identified as an emergency contact.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Oh, you got the silence.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

Oh, the IP thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:01

But you gotta you can't, I mean, I mean, there's all kinds of studies about this. You shouldn't be, you know, looking at your screen and then trying to go to sleep. I mean, because you know, or it you know, I mean down a lot.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Um I I turn it I turn the sound off a lot, but uh particularly at night, but I still have it with me all the time.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

Yeah, and yeah, it just feels like you need to be connected at all times where that wasn't that wasn't like a chance.

SPEAKER_01 58:29

Because we're all we're all parents, and some of us are some of us are grandparents. Yep, yep, yep. You know, things pop up. Yeah, you know, your children need to be able to reach you.

SPEAKER_03 58:38

Um but but that didn't exist. It did not exist. I'm sure when you were.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

Didn't exist when I was of course I think people are involved in understanding the importance of not being on phones and not being I mean, we had just have a thing the other day where they're trying to get the kids not to be on screen time at school. Yeah, I saw that in the news. They were like, we need to keep keep them off the screens at school. It's just too yeah, it's too much. It is too much. It is too much.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

How many screens at school? Oh, they're a buying phone.

SPEAKER_02 59:02

They're working on school computers or whatever. I got you. You know, they're get them off of that.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

You know, there was there was a time when when we were kids, uh, you know, everybody had to walk around with change because you might have to use a payphone.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Yeah. Only screen we saw was called an overhead projector.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

And I thought it was cool when they could write on the look at that. It's up on the blackboard now. This was a this was a big advancement from having to use chalk to write a lot of time. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 59:39

Remember when I was in college, I went I went to Europe with like I had a U-Rail pass and a youth hostel membership where I could stay at these youth hostels for 50 cents a night or something. And I and so I was there with just like riding if I couldn't find a youth hostel for 50 cents, I just got on another train and slept on the train or slept on the train station or something. My parents had no idea where I was.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

Did you write letters occasionally?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

Oh, you didn't even write letters, home?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

No, I mean, but that doesn't snail me. I wouldn't even the letter, I would have the letter would have taken three weeks to get home.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Well, but at least they would have known that you were alive three weeks ago. Rachel was a hobo.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

I can't imagine like my like you learn at the bar. I can't imagine like my kids going there and I had no way to reach them and no idea where they were.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

I don't I don't think any of our kids could read a actual map. Like if they had like you know, I can't read an actual map. We could barely read a map we had in the car. Yeah. It's just the right road. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:52

John, who do you think I am?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:53

Listen, I I remember trying to break out the map in the car and you know, trying to look at the map and drive at the same time. And and stick shift, right? Oh you're trying to read the map, you're trying to drive, you gotta shift that was efficient multitasking in those days. That was the good old days. Oh, baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

That was the good old day.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

You had to think, but there's but there's some silver lining in that, right? Like just being in your own world, not really paying attention to what everybody else is doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

I think you had to be very self-reliant.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:26

Exactly. You had to be self-reliant. Um, and I think uh I honestly I think we were all probably a little less stressed out back then.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:33

Yeah, yeah. Because we pay attention to so much. We have to now, right? Like I was just talking about this the other day. Like, you think about just the most common thing that happens, you see a video of something. That's the most common thing that ever happens. Like, oh, did you see the video of the guy that punched the old lady at Walmart? Like, you know what I mean? You just like everything everything's a video. We're videoing everyone. People aren't even stopping people from doing terrible things anymore. They're just like, let's just go.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

Yeah, it's it's it's terrible. It's terrible. I mean, we're uh yeah. I mean, I think if we all unplugged a little bit more, I think I think we'd all be a little happier. Um, so in our closing moments, uh a few little snippets to throw out there. Uh I think we're all intrigued by the socialist mayor of New York City, uh you know, who did a press conference last week. I guess it was two weeks ago now.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

It wasn't a press conference, it was an Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

It was a video. It was like a video post. An Instagram post where that is truly the younger generation. Yes. So uh the socialist mayor of New York City Instagram post talking about Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, one of America's most successful companies that employs thousands of people. They pay billions and billions of dollars in taxes. I'm gonna look that up out there. And uh so Mandami is unhappy that Ken Griffin has a $238 million apartment in New York City and thinks this is just an outrage. And this is an example of how all these rich people need to pay more money. So now, but the one thing that these socialists don't seem to understand is that company that Ken Griffin owns, they employ thousands of people. They pay billions of dollars in taxes to the city of New York. The amount of philanthropy that Ken Griffin gives to various charities all over New York City, this is hundreds of millions in the U.S.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

$650 million.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

$650 million in charitable contributions. Do you know how many nonprofit organizations rely on $650 million in contributions? And this idiot wants to chase all the wealthy people out of New York. It's insane. I mean, and mind you, this is a district where they pay $25,000 a kid for shitty public schools.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

Yeah. But uh and also, I mean, it was um it it's dangerous too. That he was in front of his house and you know, calling, telling everybody this rich bastard needs to, you know, pay his taxes. And you just had the United Healthcare guy murdered a few blocks away. So um we shouldn't be inciting that kind of hatred.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:19

Absolutely not. I mean, it is inciting violence and hatred. It's not healthy, it's not helpful. It's not smart.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:26

Well, let's stay on topic here.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

He found something.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

And uh, you know, according to chat, which we just about to ask for the chat GPT that you think is from uh according to Reuter, Citadel said its principals and employees paid nearly $2.3 billion in New York City and state taxes over five years. And employees. So this is not just the company.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

That's the point. Because they employ thousands of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:59

Reporting based on Iris data, uh, if they if Citadel leaves New York, which is hard for them to do all the people not leaving.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:07

All the people not leaving.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

Okay, but all those well-paying jobs will be gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

No, no, they'll they'll they'll find jobs. That's fine. But let's keep going. Ken Griff personally paid an average federal effective tax rate of 29.2%.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

That's a low rate for a billionaire, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:25

As you and I have discussed many times before, very wealthy people, they don't take a lot in salary. They pay capital, they take a lot of salary, they pay capital payments taxes. It passes through the hedge funds and the companies and to the so his salary, so for whatever salary wages he has, he's paying 39% like the rest of the 1%.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

Hold on, hold on. 29 point, which we pay you back. Hold on, but most of his money, most of the money that he's making, he's he's it's it's through capital. Gains. So he's paying the 20% capital gains tax. So if you average that out, that's how they come up with 29.2%.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

So anyway, he pays, he pays what we pay. Even I know I've got a mathware. He pays what we pay, and he has a $238 million apartment. That's all I'm saying. Kevin, we've talked about donating. I'm not saying you gotta help make them pay for everything, but Jesus, pay your fix. You know that regular people also pay capital. And that said, we don't really know what they pay because this stuff is all pretty much hidden.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

Listen, uh listen, I mean so you lose the two billion in taxes to New York. No, you won't lose two billion. All those people are not leaving New York. And you also, and the guy's also about to invest six billion dollars in New York City. Now, after Mandami publicly shamed him, you think Ken Griffin really wants to invest six billion dollars in New York City? It's all chatter. That's crazy. It's all chatter.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

No, it's plenty of companies have moved are moving because of these kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

My only question is going to another state, they give another state a boost. Well, they're not trying to tell you where they're not going.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Is that good for New York as mayor of New York? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:17

I mean, New York and California, there are fiscal train wrecks, which is why people are leaving there.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

Well, my honest opinion, the people who make money there, they'll be there. That's what they say. Banks are there, money is there, hedge funds are there, the market is there. He's not leaving.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

No, he can move his company to Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:34

He's not leaving. He's not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

Kevin, Kevin. Ken Griffin was head Citadel was headquartered in Chicago. Another train wreck state. He moved the headquarters out of Chicago and sent it to Florida. Well, you know, which is governed in a sensible way. We'll go to Texas.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:53

You all's attention is on the wrong thing. How many bedrooms is in this 236 million apartments?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

I need to look at the 21st century lifestyles of the rich and famous, you know, so I can figure out what this thing looks like. At any rate. Anyway. All right. Well, uh, happy trails. We've completed another podcast. Another podcast. We've solved a few podcasts. Please. And we've created new ones.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Please like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Comment, send in your comments. Send in your comments, send in your thoughts. Yeah. Tell Johnny. Show Kevin how wrong he is.